ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's Joint Operations Command (JOC) announced on Friday that it has killed 14 suspected Islamic State (ISIS) fighters, including key leaders, following airstrikes on the group’s hideout in the western Anbar province.
“At 4:00 am on Thursday, August 29, 2024 … successive and surprising airstrikes were carried out on all the hideouts,” read a statement from the Joint Operations Command.
“After clashes with those fleeing the airstrikes at several hideouts, the number of dead ISIS elements defeated in the deserts and caves reached 14 terrorists, some of whom were wearing explosive belts and carrying hand grenades,” it added.
The operation was carried out in cooperation and technical coordination with the International Coalition, according to the statement.
The JOC also noted that among the dead were “key leaders from the top ranks” of ISIS, adding that all the hideouts of the group along with their weapons and logistics support were destroyed.
ISIS rose to power and seized control of large swathes of Iraqi territory during a brazen offensive in 2014. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017, when its so-called caliphate in the country fell to Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by the US-led international coalition.
Despite its territorial defeat, the group continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions in several provinces, particularly in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, which stretch across the provinces of Salahaddin, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Nineveh.
Iraq’s air force regularly pursues and targets ISIS hideouts across the country, particularly in the disputed areas.
In mid-July, Iraqi warplanes struck an ISIS hideout in eastern Salahaddin province, following a deadly attack by the group in the neighboring Kirkuk province. No information on casualties was provided.
In late June, at least seven ISIS members were killed in two separate airstrikes in Salahaddin province, days after three ISIS members were killed in an operation in Kirkuk.
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