ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - At least four alleged Islamic State (ISIS) militants were killed in Iraqi army airstrikes on Thursday in Kirkuk province, a Peshmerga official confirmed to The New Region.
“On Thursday, a group of five ISIS militants had broken into the village of Tapakur, Shwan subdistrict,” a Peshmerga official who preferred to be unnamed, told The New Region on Friday. “There was only one family, a married couple, who had lived in the village, raising livestock. They had fled the village after noticing the militants in the area.”
The official went on to say: “After monitoring their movements, tonight at 9:30pm, two Iraqi fighter jets struck the village, targeting the ISIS group, killing four of the militants."
He said a fifth militant has survived the strikes.
The village of Tapakur, Shwan sub-distrct, Kirkuk, is located on the outskirts of Mount Khalkhalan in the province.
The Iraqi Security Media Cell, for their part, said in a statement the strikes were carried out by “F-16 aircraft” and they "targeted an important terrorist hideout, which was a cave."
The security media cell said the operation was carried out following coordination with local security forces of Sulaimani province.
"Joint security work and unifying security efforts have a positive impact in getting rid of terrorism wherever it is,” the statement read.
These operations are part of an ongoing effort to eliminate remaining ISIS elements in Iraq. Security forces have ramped up efforts in recent months and intensified their operations against suspected hideouts of the group, especially in Anbar, Nineveh, and Kirkuk.
In a similar operation on Monday, another four alleged ISIS militants, including a leader were reported killed in the Lailan area, southeast of Kirkuk.
Iraqi armed forces have recently accelerated their aerial and ground military campaigns against remnants of the extremist ISIS group across parts of the country, including the deserts of Anbar province, the remote regions of Nineveh province and parts of the disputed province of Kirkuk, killing their militants, destroying their hideouts and confiscating myriads of ammunitions in their possession.
ISIS controlled large swathes of territory in parts of Iraq and Syria following their rise in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017.
The group no longer controls any territory, but they are active in their hit-and-run operations, posing serious danger to security around the areas that they had once controlled.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) in late September announced that “28 ISIS operatives, including at least four senior leaders” were killed in a “large-scale” airstrike on a remote ISIS training camp in central Syria.
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