SULAIMANI (ESTA) — At least 37 “terrorists” were killed in 51 airstrikes in Iraq in two months, an Iraqi commander said on Monday.
Iraq’s joint operations commander Lieutenant General Abdulamir Al-Shammari said the Iraqi air force carried out 29 strikes in the country in December.
The strikes killed 15 “terrorists” and destroyed 10 hideouts, two caves and camps, Shammari said in a press conference.
He further said the country’s air force also conducted 22 airstrikes in January, killing 22 terrorists.
The airstrikes were destroyed four hideouts, two caves and an abandoned house, he added.
Separately, commander of the counter-terrorism service Lieutenant General Abdulwahab al-Saadi said the agency’s forces carried out 21 acts and detained 17 suspects last month.
Separately, Iraqi security media cell said the so-called deputy governor of Islamic State (ISIS) was killed in a strike on the militant’s hideouts in Tarmiyah in Baghdad.
“The identity of the so-called deputy governor, terrorist Adwan Farhan Jafal, nicknamed Sheikh Saif, was revealed after conducting DNA test,” it said in a tweet.
ISIS controlled roughly a third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017. Iraqi forces and Kurdish troops backed by U.S.-led Coalition forces as well as Iran-backed Shia militias defeated the militant group in 2017, but its members still roam areas of northern Iraq and northeastern Syria.
