A brigade of the Nineveh Operations Command clashed with a group of alleged ISIS members on Monday, after discovering a number of tunnels supposedly belonging to the group, during an inspection operation in the Nuwaigit mountain range, southwest of the province.
According to the statement from the SMC, one of the members was killed during the initial confrontation; while another “blew himself up” inside one of the tunnels leading to minor injuries of two officers and two associates of the brigade.
Two air strikes were then carried out by the Iraqi Air Force, targeting two of the tunnels and reportedly killing all the members who were inside them.
ISIS seized control of swaths of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but has continued to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and kidnappings across several provinces.
Two ISIS suspects, plotting to carry out a suicide attack during the month of Ramadan, were arrested in Kirkuk last month.
In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted six attacks in Iraq from March 24 to March 30, killing and injuring 10 people.
