ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s air force on Sunday struck an “important” Islamic State (ISIS) hideout in eastern Salahaddin province, security forces said, following a deadly attack by the jihadists in neighboring Kirkuk province.
“An important hideout for ISIS elements in the Palkana Mountains within the operations sector east of Salahaddin … was monitored with terrorist elements inside it, and the hideout was targeted and completely destroyed on top of the terrorists by the air forces’ F-16 aircraft,” Iraq’s Security Media Cell said in a statement.
Intelligence for the operation – carried out in cooperation with Kurdish security forces (Asayish) – was obtained from the confessions of an ISIS member who was arrested amidst clashes with Asayish in Kirkuk’s Qarahanjir subdistrict on Sunday morning, according to the cell.
No information on casualties was provided.
On Sunday, one Asayish member and an ISIS militant were killed during a skirmish in Qarahanjir.
The two suspects were accused of participating in several “terrorist” acts across Kirkuk which had led to the deaths of at least five police officers, according to an Asayish statement.
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 the 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.
An official from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Peshmerga ministry on Sunday called for greater coordination between Iraqi and Kurdish security forces to protect the areas in the security vacuum between Erbil and Baghdad.
Iraq’s air force regularly pursues and targets ISIS hideouts across the country, particularly in the disputed areas.
In late June, at least seven ISIS members were killed in two separate airstrikes in the Salahaddin province, days after three ISIS members were killed in an operation in Kirkuk.
