Iraqi airstrike kills three ISIS militants

SALAH AL-DIN – The Iraqi Security Media Cell reported on Friday that an aerial strike by F-16 aircraft in Mount Hamrin, near the border of Kirkuk and Salah Al-Din governorates, killed three Islamic State militants.

In a statement, the cell said the operation was executed with “high-level coordination” between the Counter-Terrorism Service and the Joint Operations Command.

A force from the Counter-Terrorism Service’s Kirkuk regiment, assisted by technical and reconnaissance support from the Joint Operations Command, proceeded to inspect the site of the strike. They discovered the bodies of three ISIS militants and seized light weapons, ammunition, explosives, and two explosive belts. They also found several destroyed weapons, equipment, communication devices, and various logistical materials.

The airstrike follows a spike in ISIS activity across Iraq in recent months. Last week, six Iraqi soldiers were killed in an attack by ISIS militants in the Diyala governorate. In another major deadly attack in mid-May, ISIS fighters killed several members of an Iraqi Army battalion, including the battalion commander, in an area between the Salah Al-Din and Diyala governorates.

Despite losing its territorial caliphate in Iraq in 2017, a United Nations report from January highlighted that between 3,000 and 5,000 ISIS fighters remain active across Iraq and Syria, posing a significant security challenge. U.S. Central Command warned on July 16 that ISIS was “attempting to reconstitute” in Iraq and Syria and that the number of his attacks was almost doubled from the attacks last year.