BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Iraq has launched an air attack on a gathering of Daesh ringleaders inside neighboring Syria, killing 45 members of the terrorist group, its military said on Saturday.
F-16 fighter jets destroyed three houses on Friday which were connected by a trench in the town of Hajin, where the leaders were meeting.
Those killed included high profile targets such as the group’s "deputy war minister”, one of its "media emirs”, its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s personal courier and its chief of police, the military said in a statement.
"Iraqi F-16 jets carried out a successful airstrike that targeted a meeting of Daesh leaders ... in … Hajin area within Syrian territory. The operation resulted in the complete destruction of the targets, and the killing of around 45 terrorists," the military's joint operations command said in statement on Saturday.
The Iraqi Air Force has carried out several such raids against the terrorist group in Syria since last year.
Iraqi authorities have stated that they work closely with the Syrian government to monitor and target terrorist targets based on the efforts of intelligence and information departments of the security coordination committee formed between Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran and Moscow years ago, as well as coordination with the so-called anti-Daesh coalition led by the U.S.
Earlier this month, Iraq said it had launched an airstrike against Daesh positions inside the Syrian territory as both neighboring countries step up efforts to get rid of the Takfiri terror group’s remnants.
The Iraqi military said in a statement on June 7 that the Iraqi Air Force F-16 fighter jets destroyed an undisclosed location where members of the terrorist group were operating.
Daesh started a campaign of terror against Syria and Iraq in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
It, however, lost all of its strongholds in both countries last year thanks to counter-terrorism offensives of the Iraqi and Syrian national armies, backed by their allies.
On December 9, 2017, Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in Iraq.
 
Iraqi police and bystanders look at the wreckage of a vehicle destroyed in a car bomb attack in this file photo.