ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 15 Islamic State or ISIS militants, including a senior leader, were killed by airstrikes carried out by warplanes from the US-led coalition in the ISIS-held town of Gayara in southern Mosul. "On Sunday afternoon, coalition warplanes bombed the village of Hud in Gayara, southern Mosul, killing 15 ISIS militants including a leader named Sheikh Ibrahim," a source from the Nineveh Operations Command told Rudaw. The source added that the slain ISIS militants and the leader were from a special unit of the group who are believed to have launched several assaults on Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi army forces. The coalition bombings come at a time when ISIS has increased its artillery barrage and mortar shelling in the area following the arrival of Iraqi army forces Makhmour in preparation for an imminent assault against the group's main stronghold of Mosul. Further south, Iraq’s defense ministry today ordered the residents of Fallujah, another town held by the militant group, to stay away from ISIS positions as Iraqi forces were expected to begin an offensive against the key city.
