Iraqi forces destroy six ISIS hideouts in Kirkuk

Iraqi Air Force F-16 fighter jets during a training. Photo: US Air Force Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi military announced on Monday that Iraqi security forces had identified and destroyed six suspected hideouts belonging to ISIS in the northern province of Kirkuk during an air operation. Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said in a statement that an airborne group of Special Forces carried out a rapid security operation early on Monday. The hideouts were destroyed in precise airstrikes after field operations identified them in the Zghitun Valley area in Kirkuk, according to the statement. The Kurdistan Region Security Agency (Asayish) also announced the arrest of two suspected ISIS militants in separate operations coordinated with Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) in Sulaymaniyah province earlier in July. In 2014, the terrorist group ISIS took control of large areas in Iraq and Syria before being defeated in 2017. Over five million Iraqis had to flee the governorates of Nineveh, Salah al-Din, parts of Kirkuk, Diyala, and Anbar because of ISIS control over these areas in 2014. Although Iraq declared in late 2017 that all of its regions were free of ISIS, the government continues to conduct security operations to hunt out any remaining members of the terrorist group.