An aerial targeting image shows caves and rugged terrain in the Wadi Zghaitun area of Kirkuk governorate during an Iraqi security operation against suspected militant hideouts. (Security Media Cell)
Iraqi forces raid six suspected ISIS hideouts in Kirkuk valley
KIRKUK — Iraqi forces carried out an airborne raid and airstrikes on six suspected Islamic State hideouts in Kirkuk’s Wadi Zghaitun early Monday, extending a series of operations against the group’s cells in the remote valley and surrounding areas.
The operation drew on intelligence from the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and the Counter-Terrorism Service and was planned by the Joint Operations Command’s targeting cell, the Security Media Cell said. Special forces were flown in before army aviation struck the six sites, after which troops searched them and demolished what remained. The military did not report casualties or identify who had used the sites, and said the operation was continuing as troops cleared the area.
Wadi Zghaitun, southeast of Hawija, has seen repeated operations against ISIS cells. An Iraqi airstrike killed five suspected militants there in September 2024 after days of surveillance, a security source told 964media, and forces destroyed another hideout in November 2024, killing four. F-16 jets struck the valley again in February 2025.
The latest operation comes about two weeks after a Counter-Terrorism Service officer was killed in a clash with ISIS militants while inspecting sites hit in earlier raids north of Kirkuk. Iraqi F-16s later carried out three more strikes in the area, coordinated with federal forces and the Kurdistan Region’s Commando Forces.
Iraqi forces have also repeatedly targeted caves, tunnels and shelters in the nearby Hamrin Mountains, where seven ISIS militants were reported killed and more than 20 hideouts and tunnels destroyed in an operation at the end of 2024, followed by further F-16 strikes in January 2025.
ISIS seized large areas of northern and western Iraq in 2014 before Iraqi and Kurdish forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, declared its territorial defeat in the country in 2017. It has since operated through small cells in rural, mountainous and desert areas, where Iraqi forces continue regular intelligence-led raids and airstrikes.