Iraqi troops destroy two Islamic State hotbeds in Salahuddin
Iraqi troops arrest a suspected Islamic State militant
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Security Media Center said on Sunday that two Islamic State hotbeds were destroyed in the central province of Salahuddin.
“A joint security force from Salahuddin Operations Command carried out a security operation in Al Alam district in Salahuddin province, managing to find two hotbeds that were used by Islamic State militants,” the Arabic-language Baghdad Today news website quoted the center as saying in a statement.
“The troops found clothes and cooking tools inside the hotbeds,” the statement read, adding that the hideouts were completely destroyed in the operation.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.
IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.