Counter-terror forces kill 42 ISIS militants near Mosul

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service (ICTS) killed 42 Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in an operation south of Mosul on Saturday and Sunday, the ICTS has announced.

Operation Sweeping Torrent, which began in the Ain-al Jahesh area “raided the so-called Tigris sector where ISIS gangs are operating,” the statement read,” forcing the enemy elements to retreat and return to the tunnels and caves in which they were fortified,” according to a statement published to Twitter on Sunday evening. 

 Among the 42 militants killed were media and administration  officials for the terror group. 

Forces retrieved weaponry and a “huge amount of cash” in different currencies, the statement added.

The operation was conducted by both the Iraqi and coalition air forces, according to ICTS. 

Multiple joint operations have been launched against the terror group this year, in both Iraq and Syria. 

ISIS took over swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, including Iraq’s second-biggest city of Mosul, before being territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017, and in Syria in March 2019.

Despite its territorial defeat, remnants of the group have returned to earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, and extorting money from vulnerable rural populations.

ISIS claimed responsibility for bombings at Kirkuk’s Khabbaz oilfield on December 9.