An Iraqi F-16 airstrike on January 31 targeted suspected ISIS positions in the Zarka area between Kirkuk and Salahaddin provinces, killing seven alleged militants.
“After technical efforts, follow-up, cross-checking of information and conducting tests on the bodies of the seven dead in this operation … it was confirmed conclusively that important terrorist leaders were killed,” the army’s Security Media Cell said in a statement.
It identified the dead as Dahham Mohammed Aliwi, code-named Abu Saeed al-Dandoushi, who was the so-called Kirkuk governor of the jihadist group, as well as ISIS Hamrin Mountain official Shahadha Alawi Salih and Basem Rabie al-Batoush.
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, but the group continues to pose a security threat particularly in the disputed territories that stretch across several provinces including Diyala, Salahaddin, Kirkuk, and Nineveh.
Iraq’s air force frequently carries out strikes against ISIS cells in these disputed territories.
