ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi security forces said on Friday that they carried out two airstrikes against a group of four suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members on the border between the northern provinces of Kirkuk and Salahaddin, killing all of them.
The army “managed to monitor a group of four terrorist elements in one of the guesthouses in the Zarka sector within the border area between Salah al-Din and Kirkuk,” the Security Media Cell said.
“F-16 aircraft carried out two airstrikes targeting this guesthouse, resulting in the killing of the ISIS terrorist gang members inside after completely destroying it,” it added.
Details of the operation will be published at a later date, the cell noted.
ISIS seized control of swathes of territory in northern and central Iraq in 2014. 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.
