Six IS leaders, including Baghdadi aide, killed in coalition airstrike in Kirkuk

Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Six Islamic State leaders died Monday when warplanes from the U.S-led coalition pounded their convoy southwest of Kirkuk, a local source said.

The strike targeted the long convoy which was moving from Abassi region to the Hamreen Mountains, which falls between Kirkuk and neighboring Salahuddin province, said the source.

One of the six leaders killed was one with an Arab nationality who had been a close aide to Islamic State’s supreme leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the source revealed, adding that the strike destroyed 12 vehicles driven by the militants.

Islamic State militants have been in control over Hawija and a few other surrounding regions since 2014, when they proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” spanning a third of Iraq and Syria. Iraqi and coalition warplanes occasionally strike IS locations at that region.

Local tribal leaders and politicians from Kirkuk have mounted pressure on the Iraqi government to hasten with invading Hawija, suggesting that its people were experiencing a humanitarian crisis under the group’s rule. The Iraqi government is currently employing the largest portion of its military effort in Mosul, IS’s previously-proclaimed capital in Iraq where the group is reportedly cornered in a few square kilometers.