Iraqi warplanes kill three Islamic State militants in Diyala
Paramilitary fighters and military vehicles are seen during a military operation to retake positions held by Islamic State militants, on the outskirts of Muqdadiyah in Diyala province, north of Baghdad January 25, 2015. Picture taken January 25, 2015. REUTERS
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) – Three Islamic State militants were killed in an airstrike by the Iraqi Air Force in northeastern Diyala, a well-placed provincial official said on Sunday.
Sadeq al-Husseini, the head of the Security Committee in Diyala Provincial Council, told Arabic-language Baghdad Today news website that Iraqi warplanes launched on Saturday night a specific operation in the depth of Kelal valley, 90km northeast of Baqubah, killing three Islamic State militants.
The airstrike, according to al-Husseini, “also destroyed three tunnels, where the Islamic State militants were hiding.”
In January 2015, Iraqi forces announced liberation of Diyala province from Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The province has seen months of fighting between Iraqi troops and IS militants especially in the Jalawla and Saadiyah areas in the province’s north and areas near the town of Muqdadiyah.
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.