Iraqi strike kills several suspected ISIS militants in Kirkuk

An Iraqi airstrike on Sunday killed a number of suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Kirkuk province within the framework of a recently-launched anti-ISIS operation after the militants carried out deadly attacks in the country.

The strike in Kirkuk’s Wadi al-Shay area “destroyed ISIS detachments, a terrorist hideout, and caused a number of deaths in their ranks,” the country’s Joint Operations Command said.

On Sunday, the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) launched an operation targeting ISIS cells in Kirkuk province.

The operation came after a spate of ISIS attacks in Diyala and Makhmour over the last week that raised concern about sleeper cell activities in the disputed territories.

On Thursday evening, a suspected ISIS assault in Diyala’s Muqdadiya district (known as Sharaban in Kurdish) left at least ten civilians dead and 17 injured.

On Friday, at least one Iraqi soldier was killed and five injured when suspected ISIS gunmen attacked an army position near Erbil province’s Makhmour.

ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi territory during a brazen offensive in 2014 but it was declared territorially defeated in 2017 when its so-called caliphate in the country fell as Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by a US-led international coalition, claimed back lands lost to the jihadists.

Despite its territorial defeat, the group has continued to pose a serious security threat to the country through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions in several provinces, particularly in areas disputed between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which stretch across several provinces including Diyala, Salahaddin, and Kirkuk.

Source » rudaw.net