Iraq’s Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency announced on Thursday the killing of four ISIS members in Baraa district of Salahaddin’s Eith area, after infiltrating an ISIS platoon that was operating in the region, according to state media.
The militants were killed as a result of an airstrike conducted by Iraqi F-16 fighter aircrafts that targeted ISIS dens in the form of deserted houses in an area far from Eith, the agency said.
The offensive was carried out in a joint-effort between the agency and the targeting cell of the Joint Operations Command.
“The Intelligence Agency continues its preemptive operations to strike the strongholds of terrorist gangs to exact retribution from them and dry up their sources,” state media quoted the agency’s statement as saying.
In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 24 attacks in Iraq from April 7 to April 13, killing and injuring 31 people.
ISIS on Sunday vowed to seek “revenge” over the killing of its former leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, and called on supporters to make the most of the war in Ukraine to resume attacks in Europe.
ISIS typically sends messages to followers during Ramadan to garner support.
The group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq and Syria in 2017 and 2019 respectively, but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.
The terror group’s remnants are particularly active in parts of northern and central Iraq that are disputed between Erbil and Baghdad. In Syria, the terror group continues to launch deadly attacks from the Syrian desert, which extends from Damascus to the Iraqi border.
