ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Fifteen ISIS militants have been killed in Kirkuk province by Kurdish security forces in three separate raids carried out over the course of the last 48 hours.
At least five ISIS militants were hunted down by Kurdish security forces early Thursday in Kirkuk. They were hiding in the village of Yarimja in Laylan were discovered and surrounded by the security forces and killed in the ensuing firefight.
No official has commented on whether or not they were linked to the group who attacked Kirkuk last week.
Another group of 10 ISIS militants were gunned down in two different raids by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Kirkuk Suburban Police on Wednesday.
These raids come a week after 100 ISIS militants infiltrated Kirkuk last week and went on a rampage which was combated by Kurdish security forces.
On Monday the Kurdistan Region’s Security Council announced that the leader of the group was killed and another eight ISIS militants hiding inside Kirkuk were discovered and captured.
“There are still around 37 ISIS militants on the run in Kirkuk; our security forces are looking for them”, the Director of Investigation Division at the KDP’s Security Office in Kirkuk, Brigadier General Chato Fazil, told Rudaw.
“The militants who attacked Kirkuk have not all been killed. Some of them are still on the run hiding out in Kirkuk. They emerge from time to time,” Chief of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) Security Office in Kirkuk, Major General Halkawt Abdulah, told Rudaw.
Meanwhile Halo Najat, head of the Kirkuk Security Force (Asayesh), disclosed that 89 ISIS militants have been killed or died by detonating suicide vests in confrontations with Peshmerga and armed civilians since last Friday.
Tens of people, including many from the security forces, were killed in the attack on the city last week.
Security forces and residents now face the task of cleaning up and restoring security in the city.
