Coalition airstrikes, IED blast kill several Islamic State militants in Anbar, Kirkuk
A dead ISIS fighter
An indefinite number of IS fighters were killed west of Anbar’s town of Haditha when coalition fighter jets bombed their vehicles before a planned attack on the town, said Nazem al-Jugheifi, an intelligence officer for al-Hashd al-Shaabi forces in the province.
In Kirkuk, a security source was quoted by Alsumaria News as saying that four Islamic State members were killed and two others were wounded when an explosive device went off at al-Abbasi-Hawija road southwest of the province.
The group imposed tight measures at the scene of the blast to evacuate its casualties, according to the source, who asked not to be named.
Iraqi and coalition fighter jets regularly conduct airstrikes on areas still held by IS in the west of Anbar and Kirkuk since the emergence of the group and the proclamation of its self-styled “Islamic Caliphate’ in 2014.
Iraqi and American generals estimate the number of IS militants killed since October by nearly 4000 since the start of a major operation to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the group’s last bastion in the country.