Ugandan Military Arrests ISIS Allied Rebel Group Bombing Expert

JAKARTA - The Ugandan military managed to arrest a rebel group commander allied with ISIS, an expert in making improvised explosive devices or bombs, which the group had used to carry out deadly attacks in the past, the army said on Sunday.

The rebel, Anywari Al Iraq, a Ugandan national, was arrested in the forests of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the rebel group of the Dissociated Democratic Forces (ADF) is based, the military, the Ugandan People's Defense Forces, said in a statement.

During the operation, nine people including children were also rescued from an area in Ituri Province in eastern Congo, the military said.

"Various kinds of improvising explosive device (IED) manufacturing material were found," the military said, quoted by Reuters on May 20.

ADF rebels began as insurgencies in Uganda but have been based in Congo since the late 1990s. The ADF pledged allegiance to ISIS in mid-2019 and was accused of killing hundreds of villagers in frequent attacks over the past few years.

In one of its deadliest attacks, the group was accused of carrying out three suicide bombings in November 2021 in the capital Kamala, which killed seven people, including the bombers.

In 2021, the Ugandan army launched a joint operation with the military in eastern Congo to try to defeat the uprising.