BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – At least five Daesh terrorists, including two local leaders, have been killed in an operation by Iraqi army forces along with the popular anti-terror forces to track down the militants in northern Iraq, the Iraqi military says.
A statement by the media office of Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) said that the Iraqi security forces attacked two Daesh hideouts, killing three terrorists inside, during an operation in Iraq’s northern province of Kirkuk.
The troops found four explosive devices, an explosive belt, a motorcycle, a camera, and other equipment at the hideouts, the statement said.
An anonymous security source told Xinhua that one of the killed militants is known as the local ringleader of the al-Dibis area in the northwestern part of the province.
Another JOC statement said that a joint force from the army and Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also known in Arabic as Hashd Sha’abi, killed a local Daesh leader in the Himreen mountain range and another terrorist after surrounding them in the mountainous area on the provincial border between the provinces of Kirkuk and Salahudin.
Over the past months, Iraqi security and PMU forces have conducted operations against terrorists to crack down on their intensified activities.
The security situation in Iraq has been improving since the defeat of the Daesh in 2017 with the help of Iranian and Russian forces. However, its remnants have since melted into urban centers, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent terrorist attacks against the security forces and civilians.