4 IS militants killed in Iraq

Baghdad, Feb 18 (IANS) A total of four Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in an airstrike in eastern Iraq and a raid in the west, the Iraqi military has said.

Acted on intelligence reports, the Iraqi fighter jets bombarded an IS hideout in the Himreen mountain range on Friday, killing three IS militants, said the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command in a statement.

The statement gave no further details about the bombed IS hideout but said more information would be released later, Xinhua news agency reported.

A security source anonymously told the news agency that one of the three killed is believed to be a local leader of the extremist group.

Despite repeated military operations against the IS remnants, the extremist militants are still hiding in the Himreen mountain range, which extends three provinces, namely Diyala, Salahudin, and Kirkuk.

In Iraq’s western province of Anbar, Iraqi soldiers killed an IS militant after surrounding him in a hideout in the city of Heet, some 160 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the spokesman of the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, Yahia Rasoul, said in a statement.

The security situation in Iraq has been improving since the defeat of the IS in 2017. However, the IS militants have since melted into urban centers, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.

–IANS

int/sha