Iraqi airstrike kills four Islamic State terrorists inside Nineveh tunnel

Four Islamic State militants were killed Sunday in an air raid that targeted their hotbed in Nineveh province, the Iraqi army said.

Troops of the Nineveh Operations Command found during a security campaign in Atshana Mountains a tunnel being used as a hideout by Islamic State militants, Mawazin News quoted the Security Media Center as saying in a statement.

The Iraqi Air Force immediately launched an airstrike targeting the IS militants hiding inside the tunnel, leaving four of them dead, the statement dead.

“The airstrike left the tunnel completely destroyed,” the statement added.

Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi announced in August 2017 that Nineveh province was fully liberated from Islamic State after the district of Tal Afar was recaptured.

The announcement came after the defeat of the jihadist group in the town of Ayadiya, where the militants had fled to from Tal Afar.

Islamic State militants seized control of much of Nineveh, including the provincial capital of Mosul, in June 2014.

The Iraqi government launched an operation to retake Tal Afar on 20 August involving some 50,000 personnel from the army, air force, federal police, special forces and the Shia Muslim-led paramilitary Popular Mobilisation Forces.

Source: Iraqi News