Iraqi warplanes kill six suspected ISIS members in Kirkuk

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least six suspected Islamic State members, including a leader, were killed in an operation carried out by Iraqi security forces in Kirkuk province on Thursday, the army said, amid a spike in anti-ISIS operations. 

“Three painful strikes by F-16 aircraft today resulted in the killing of a terrorist detachment consisting of six members, including the terrorist Omar Salah Nima, codenamed Abu Khattab, one of the most dangerous leaders of the ISIS terrorists,” the Iraqi army’s Joint Operations Command said in a statement. 

Iraqi counterterrorism and intelligence forces raided the site after the airstrikes, discovering a “number of explosive belts, weapons, technical equipment, and various phones,” the statement added. 

The strikes are the latest in an intensification of anti-ISIS operations across the country, particularly in the disputed areas. 

ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi territory during a brazen offensive in 2014, sweeping across vast stretches of northern and central Iraq.

But the jihadists’ so-called “caliphate” ended 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 Iraq through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, particularly in areas disputed between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) which stretch across provinces including Diyala, Salahaddin, Nineveh, and Kirkuk.

Two ISIS militants wearing explosive vests were killed during a clash with security forces in Kirkuk on Sunday, Iraq's interior ministry announced.

On Monday, Iraqi security forces arrested six ISIS members near the capital Baghdad and seized a pile of explosives. 

Earlier this month, an Iraqi airstrike in the Hamrin mountain range in Diyala killed three ISIS militants.

In late August, a joint operation by the Iraqi army and US forces in the western Anbar province killed 16 ISIS militants, and the US military said on Saturday that the operation killed four ISIS leaders.