ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi warplanes carried out several airstrikes Tuesday against suspected Islamic State (ISIS) cells in the Hamrin Mountains of Kirkuk province, the army said, as Baghdad continues cracking down on jihadist cells. The air force “carried our airstrikes using F-16 aircraft targeting the retreating defeated terrorist ISIS gangs in the Hamrin Mountains within the Kirkuk Operations Command sector,” the country’s Security Media Cell said in a statement. The strikes killed “a number” of suspected ISIS members while destroying their positions, the cell added. The operation was carried out with support from the US-led international coalition. ISIS seized control of swathes of territory in northern and central Iraq in 2014. But their so-called caliphate was brought to an end in 2017 when Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by a United States-led international coalition, clawed back territory. Despite its territorial defeat, ISIS has continued to pose a security threat in Iraq through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, particularly in the disputed territories that stretch across several provinces including Diyala, Salahaddin, Kirkuk, and Nineveh. The strike was the second on Hamrin Mountains this year, after another suspected ISIS hideout was struck by Iraqi warplanes on Friday. On Saturday, Iraqi and Kurdish security forces detained four suspected ISIS members. In its latest report on anti-ISIS operations, the Pentagon said that ISIS is a bigger threat in Syria than it is in Iraq. In Iraq, “ISIS displayed limited capabilities, conducting the lowest number of attacks observed since the onset of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq in 2003. The group also showed no significant improvement in attack sophistication,” said the report from October 29.
