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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi forces have carried out airstrikes targeting Islamic State (ISIS) remnants in a disputed area near Kirkuk, the country's counter-terrorism service announced Friday, saying two militants were killed in the operation. The strikes come just days after the same area was hit in a previous raid.
The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (ICTS) said it "carried out airstrikes that resulted in the killing of two remnants of the terrorist ISIS gangs in the Wadi al-Shai region."
Wadi al-Shai is a rugged valley in the southern part of Kirkuk province, roughly 25 kilometers west of Tuz Khurmatu.
On Wednesday, Baghdad's Security Media Cell (SMC) said that “following the tracking and surveillance of the movements of elements of the ISIS terrorist gangs,” the Iraqi Air Force “carried out four precise airstrikes using F-16 fighter jets,” noting that “the strikes targeted terrorist safe houses and hideouts in Wadi al-Shai” that resulted in “the complete destruction of the designated targets.”
ISIS seized large swathes of territory across northern and western Iraq in 2014 before being territorially defeated in 2017 following three years of fierce battles. Despite that defeat, its sleeper cells continue to carry out sporadic attacks in security gaps along disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad - spanning Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Salahaddin provinces - including abductions, hit-and-run attacks, and bombings.
The uptick in airstrikes across disputed areas follows the killing of an Iraqi military officer in early July during clashes with ISIS in Kirkuk, which prompted an intensified campaign targeting the group's hideouts in the region.
Abdul-Amir Shammari, director of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Iraq's Armed Forces, on Sunday chaired a high-level security meeting in Baghdad with the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Chief of Staff Issa Ozeir and senior Iraqi and Kurdish officials. The two sides reviewed security conditions in areas under joint Iraqi-Kurdish control and stressed the need for greater coordination to “better control these areas and maintain their security,” Erbil’s Peshmerga ministry stated on Sunday.
