Iraqi F-16 jets “carried out a successful strike today when they targeted a terrorist detachment, killing three terrorists and destroying four guesthouses, tunnels, and caves, in the Al-Aith area within Salahaddin,” state media cited a statement by the Joint Operations Command as saying.
The strikes in Al-Aith targeted the same region where a French soldier was ambushed and killed by ISIS militants on Monday while embedded with a dispatch of French troops assisting the Iraqi army in an anti-terror operation.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi land in 2014 but it was declared territorially defeated in 2017 when Kurdish and Iraqi fighters supported by the US-led coalition drove them out of the stretches of land they used to control.
Despite its territorial defeat, the group continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several Iraqi provinces, particularly those falling in the disputed areas between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), stretching across the provinces of Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.
Iraqi warplanes routinely carry out strikes against suspected ISIS hideouts in the disputed territories, where ISIS cells continue to terrorize rural towns and villages threatened by a lack of policing.
The Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have discussed establishing joint brigades to secure areas disputed between the governments. Talks stalled because of elections and a year of political wrangling, but funds for two joint brigades are included in the draft 2023 budget.
A member of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee told Rudaw earlier this month that the budget is finalized and the brigades will start operating within the month.
