"After gathering precise knowledge, two Iraqi fighter jets hit their targets and destroyed two ISIS hideouts last night at 12:30," said Diyar Shawkat, the mayor of Khanaqin on Monday.
Khanaqin police and the Iraqi Army, investigating the airstrikes which killed six, came to the area near Jalawla town. They found light and medium firearms by the bodies of the slain militants, explained Shawkat.
"Their bodies have been transferred to Khanaqin morgue and the security forces have begun an investigation into their identities," he said.
ISIS controlled the Shiite-populated village of Qaya in Khanaqin district following resistance by the inhabitants on September 17.
Militants slain on Monday are believed to be the perpetrators of the attack in the Khanaqin village of Qaya where they had wounded five villagers.
Khanaqin was under administration of the Kurdistan Regional Government until the events of October 16, when Baghdad sent federal forces to take over the disputed areas.
Khanaqin has seen a recent rise in violence. On September 10, four kidnapped Kurds were killed and decapitated, including a Peshmerga.
Two ISIS militants were killed in a separate operation on the outskirts of Mount Hamrin by Saladin security forces, stated Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, the spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
Security forces in Kirkuk, Saladin, and Diyala provinces have been carrying out operations against ISIS, arresting or killing scores of ISIS militants.
Locals and officials have warned of a deteriorating security situation in the disputed areas, which have been in the security portfolio of solely Iraqi forces and Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries since October 2017. The areas are religiously and ethnically diverse. Kurds consider the Hamrin mountains to be their southern border.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared ISIS militarily defeated in December 2017.
