Two Islamic State members killed while infiltrating into southwest of Kirkuk

Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi pro-government paramilitary troops have killed two Islamic State members as they were trying to sneak into southwest of Kirkuk province, the media service said on Thursday.

A statement by al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said “troops of the 27th brigade killed, today, two Islamic State members who infiltrated into a village in Hawija town, southwest of Kirkuk.”

The two members, according to the statement, “attempted carrying out attacks, however, the troops managed to kill them before they reached their target.”

On Wednesday, Federal Police killed an Islamic State leader called Shehab Ahmed al-Sallab at the outskirts of Hawija.

Earlier on the same day, a wide-scale security operation was carried out in Kirkuk in the wake of recent attacks launched by Islamic State group against some of the villages in the province.

Thousands of Islamic State militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June, 2014.

In December, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced gaining control on all the territories that were captured by Islamic State, since 2014. However, the group still has dormant cells, through which it carries out attacks, across Iraq like it used to do before 2014.