Police in Diyala have arrested three "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) emirs in a series of "surprise raids" in the province, the police command said Tuesday (April 9th).

"A joint police and intelligence force arrested three terrorist leaders who serve as emirs for ISIS," command spokesman Col. Ghalib al-Attiya told Diyaruna.

The arrests were the result of "surprise raids on the leaders' locations in the areas of al-Mukhaisa, al-Nada and al-Muqdadiya," he said.

Al-Attiya said the detainees have been involved in several crimes, adding that their arrest came as a result of citizen co-operation with security and intelligence services.

Iraqi forces "are working side by side with intelligence agencies to track down ISIS gangs", he said, noting that "we have begun to rely heavily on citizens' tip-offs".

This information "has given us a greater ability to track down ISIS remnants and hit them in quality pre-emptive operations without the need to mobilise security units and carry out large-scale search campaigns for terrorists in remote cities or villages", he said.

The local population's tip-offs "have become an essential part of our work, in addition to the information we get from confessions by detained ISIS remnants".

Police, army and tribal forces are controlling all areas of the province, al-Attiya said, stressing that "there is no area where there is a security vacuum".

"ISIS remnants no longer have any impact as most of them have either escaped, been arrested or killed during the security campaigns that we carry out continuously with the other military units and tribesmen," he said.

"We are making progress in our efforts thanks to citizens' courage and the continuous development of our intelligence apparatus," he added.