A joint unit comprised of Iraq's military intelligence directorate and Diyala’s operations command clashed with two ISIS militants in al-Eid village, killing both.
“One of them was wearing an explosive belt and had a detonator in his hand,” the announcement read. He was identified as the commander of ISIS in Khan Bani Saad, a Shiite-majority city in Diyala province.
A bomb disposal team diffused the explosive belt.
ISIS rose to power and seized control of large swathes of Iraqi territory during a brazen offensive in 2014. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017 when its so-called caliphate in the country fell to Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by a US-led international coalition.
Despite its territorial defeat, the group continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions in several provinces, particularly in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, which stretch across the provinces of Salahaddin, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Nineveh.
Iraq’s air force regularly pursues and targets ISIS hideouts across the country, particularly in these disputed areas.
Last Tuesday, state media announced the killing of at least three suspected ISIS militants in an Iraqi airstrike in Diyala.
In late June, at least seven ISIS members were killed in two separate airstrikes in Salahaddin province, days after three ISIS members were killed in an operation in Kirkuk.
