Dozens of Daesh militants killed in separate attacks across Iraq

Iraqi government forces, supported by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units, have carried out separate clean-up operations against remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group across the country, killing dozens of the extremists in the process.

News ID: 446576

Date: 14 August 2019 - 10:37

RNA - The media bureau of Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha'abi, said in a statement on Tuesday that Iraqi Air Force fighter jets launched an airstrike against a pickup truck as it was travelling along a road in the Hawi region east of Samarra, located 125 kilometers (78 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.

The statement added that the aerial raid was mounted following a tip-off about Daesh militants in the area, noting that eight Takfiris were killed as a result.

The development came a day after the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) said in a statement that it had carried out a raid on Daesh hideouts in the desert of the country’s western province of Anbar.

The statement said CTS troops pounded the positions of the extremist militants and clashed with them, leaving eight of them dead.

Later on, the troops searched the hideouts and found two would-be bombers wearing explosive belts, killing one of them. The other blew himself up without causing casualties among the troops, the statement added.

Moreover, a total of five Daesh militants were killed in two incidents in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala on Monday.

Sadiq al-Husseini, head of the security committee of the provincial council, said Iraqi army soldiers and Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters engaged in skirmishes with Daesh terrorists in the rugged area of Mutibjah, after the latter attacked their outposts there. Three Daesh militants were killed as a result.

Additionally, a CTS unit carried an operation at the edges of Himreen Lake in the northern part of Diyala and killed two Daesh militants.

A statement by the media office of the Joint Operations Command said on August 5 that the Iraqi army, police and Hashd al-Sha’abi units, backed by the Iraqi Air Force fighter jets, had launched the third phase of the Will of Victory Operation in eastern Diyala Province and Nineveh Province in the north.

The statement said the troops had begun search operations in rural areas near the towns of Miqdadiyah, Jalawla and Khanaqin in Diyala province.

Also in Nineveh province, the troops commenced an operation to clear the rugged areas of al-Atshanah and the mountain ranges of Badush and Sheikh Ibrahim in west and northwest of the provincial capital city of Mosul.

According to Press TV, the second-in-command of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah, said in a statement on July 20 that Iraqi military forces had launched the second phase of the Will of Victory Operation to hunt down Daesh remnants north of Baghdad and areas nearby.

The statement noted that the offensive aims to “beef up security and stability in areas north of Baghdad and surrounding areas in the provinces of Diyala, Salahuddin and Anbar.”

It said that units from the Baghdad Operations Command, command operations from Diyala, Samarra and Anbar, the Federal Police Command, rapid response teams, Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters and the special forces regiment of the Operations Department of the Chief of Staff of the Army as well as the Special Task Force of the Directorate of Military Intelligence were participating in the offensive.

Iraq's army and the voluntary forces conducted the first phase of the Will of Victory Operation early on July 7, the military said in a statement, adding that the operation would last several days and was aimed at securing the province of Anbar and the central and northern regions of Salahuddin and Nineveh.

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