Coalition planes destroy ISIS weapons cache, kill 3 fighters near Makhmour
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — US-led international coalition warplanes targeted positions in the mountains near Makhmour on Thursday, killing three ISIS militants.
Sirwan Barzani, commander of the Peshmerga forces on Gwer-Makhmour front, said 20 ISIS positions were bombed on Mount Qarachogh.
The airstrikes targeted a weapons cache that included 27 bombs and killed at least three militants, he added.
Mount Qarachogh lies behind the Makhmour town. It is about 60 kilometers southwest of the city of Erbil.
Peshmerga forces are stationed on the mountain after they pulled out from Makhmour town in the wake of the October 16 events, when they withdrew from many of the disputed or Kurdistani areas claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil.
Though the Iraqi government declared the end of the ISIS war in December 2017, there have been sporadic military confrontations between ISIS remnants and Iraqi Security Forces including the Kurdish Peshmerga — namely around Makhmour and in the Hamrin mountains in Saladin province.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 Islamic State fighters remain in Iraq and Syria despite the extremist's group’s defeat and a halt in the flow of foreigners joining its ranks, according to a UN report in mid-August.
Sirwan Barzani, commander of the Peshmerga forces on Gwer-Makhmour front, said 20 ISIS positions were bombed on Mount Qarachogh.
The airstrikes targeted a weapons cache that included 27 bombs and killed at least three militants, he added.
Mount Qarachogh lies behind the Makhmour town. It is about 60 kilometers southwest of the city of Erbil.
Peshmerga forces are stationed on the mountain after they pulled out from Makhmour town in the wake of the October 16 events, when they withdrew from many of the disputed or Kurdistani areas claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil.
Though the Iraqi government declared the end of the ISIS war in December 2017, there have been sporadic military confrontations between ISIS remnants and Iraqi Security Forces including the Kurdish Peshmerga — namely around Makhmour and in the Hamrin mountains in Saladin province.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 Islamic State fighters remain in Iraq and Syria despite the extremist's group’s defeat and a halt in the flow of foreigners joining its ranks, according to a UN report in mid-August.