ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iraqi airstrike killed at least four suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Kirkuk province on Saturday, the army said.
“In coordination with and through intensive follow-up by the Targeting Cell of the Joint Operations Command, an operation spanning two consecutive days tracked a terrorist unit consisting of four members in the Zaghaitoun Valley within the Kirkuk Operations Command sector,” read a statement from the military’s Joint Operations Command.
“Based on this precise information, at 18:50 today, Saturday, the brave Air Hawks launched an F-16 airstrike on the hideout where the terrorist unit was located. With a precise and successful strike, the hideout was reduced to rubble over the heads of the terrorists,” it added.
The operation in territories disputed between federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government is the latest in an ongoing effort to rid the country of ISIS cells in areas where a security vacuum allows them to operate.
ISIS seized control of swathes of territory in 2014, sweeping across vast stretches of northern and central Iraq and declaring a so-called caliphate. The jihadists’ rule was brought to an end in 2017 when Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by a United States-led international coalition, clawed back territory from the group.
Last week, in a similar operation, the Iraqi army announced it killed four suspected ISIS members in an airstrike in Kirkuk.
Over 100 ISIS members have been killed since the beginning of the year, the army said last month.
