Iraqi warplanes “carried out a successful airstrike using F-16 aircraft in the Hamrin Mountains within the Diyala Operations Command sector, targeting a terrorist hideout with a terrorist detachment with three elements inside,” the army’s Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
All three suspected militants were killed in the strike, the statement added, and “all weapons and equipment inside the hideout were destroyed.”
The strike was the second on suspected ISIS locations in the Hamrin Mountain range within a month, with a previous bombardment in late August killing another jihadist cell.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi territory during a brazen offensive in 2014, sweeping through vast stretches of northern and central Iraq.
But the jihadists’ so-called “caliphate” would come to an end in 2017 as Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by a US-led international coalition, clawed back territory from the group.
Despite its territorial defeat, ISIS has continued to pose security threats in the country through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions in several provinces, particularly in areas disputed between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which stretch across several provinces including Diyala, Salahaddin, and Kirkuk.
Iraq’s air force regularly pursues and targets ISIS hideouts across the country, particularly in the disputed areas.
To combat ISIS in these areas, the Iraqi government and the KRG’s Peshmerga ministry agreed in 2021 to form two joint brigades that will be under full control of Baghdad.
In late August, a joint operation by the Iraqi army and US forces in the western Anbar province killed 16 ISIS militants.
In June, at least seven ISIS members were killed in two separate airstrikes in Salahaddin, days after three ISIS members were killed in an operation in Kirkuk.
