Five Islamic State snipers killed by coalition warplanes in Kirkuk
Troops of the Islamic State group. File photo.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Warplanes from the United States.-led coalition killed five Islamic State snipers on Friday, a security source was quoted saying.
An officer with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces told Shafaq News that the jets pounded Islamic State locations in Kabiba village, west of Kirkuk, killing five snipers from the group.
Islamic State has held a few havens in southwestern Kirkuk, most notably the town of Hawija, since 2014, when the group proclaimed an “Islamic caliphate” on a third of Iraq and Syria. The group had reportedly relocated commands of areas lost to security forces to Kirkuk, with some sources previously quoted saying it became the group’s new capital.
The Iraqi government declared victory over Islamic State militants in Mosul, the group’s former capital in Iraq, last month, and said it was going to proceed towards other group holdouts, including Kirkuk.
The group lost more than 25.000 members in military operations since their launch in October, according to Iraqi generals. A few thousands are thought to remain in Kirkuk, Anbar, Salahuddin and Tal Afar.
Armed conflicts in Iraq killed and wounded more than 500 during July, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI).