While many of the active battlefronts between Iraqi forces and the Islamic State (ISIS) had quieted by 2018, military operations continued against sleeper cells and rural ISIS holdouts. ISIS continued to capture and extrajudicially kill civilians and Iraqi armed forces throughout the year. Under the guise of fighting terror, Iraqi forces arbitrarily detained, ill-treated and tortured, and disappeared mostly Sunni men from areas where ISIS was active and failed to respect their due process and fair trial rights. The years of fighting across the country left at least 1.8 million Iraqis still displaced in 2018. Iraqi authorities imposed security measures against individuals and families perceived as having relatives who supported ISIS in the past in what amounted to collective punishment.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza. Photo: File Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza on Wednesday rubbished reports of government hiding the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country. "The reports of the government hiding the total number of confirmed cases of the virus in Pakistan are 100 per cent false," Mirza told reporters in Islamabad. "The government has also initiated a strategy to tackle the possible spread of dengue in Pakistan." "Every little case of the common cough or flu should not be mistaken for the coronavirus," he noted. "If people get alarmed and concerned at every little illness, there will soon be a panic in the country," he said. Mirza added, "Pakistan has thankfully managed to contain the pandemic to some extent because of the preventive measures put in place by the government. This is why we managed to contain the spread compared to other...
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