SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi warplanes attacked targets of the Islamic State (ISIS) remnants in Kirkuk province late Friday night, the Security Media Cell said.
Iraqi F-16s targeted the hideouts of the ISIS remnants in the Pir Ahmed village of the province, the Security Media cell said in a statement.
The attack was carried out in coordination with the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (ICTS) and the Security forces of Kirkuk based on “detailed” information.
At least three precision strikes from the F-16s struck the hideouts, the statement said without specifying whether it killed any terrorists or not, however, their dens have been destroyed.
Although Baghdad declared victory over ISIS in 2017, a terrorist group that once used to hold a swath of territory in the light of its offensive back in 2014.
However, many of the terrorist militants still roam in the so-called disputed territories, claimed by both the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and suffer from a security vacuum that ISIS remnants exploited to operate inside.
Disputed-Kirkuk province lies in an oil-rich and ethnically mixed part of the country. Control over the city has been contested by Kurdish and Iraqi authorities.
Kurdish forces used to control the city when the Iraqi army fled during the Islamic State offensive in 2014. But, the Iraqi forces retook the city in the wake of the Kurdish referendum for independence in 2017.
