As many as 13 fighters of Islamic State, including senior leaders, were killed Monday in an airstrike in the Iraqi province of Anbar, like reported by iraqinews.com.
Qutri al-Obeidi, a senior leader with al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) in Anbar, told the privately-owned Almaalomah website that the Iraqi Air Force targeted a group of Islamic State terrorists in al-Ja’ara area in the desert of Ar-Rutbah, west of Anbar.
“The airstrike left 13 Islamic State militants dead,” al-Obeidi said, adding that senior IS leaders were among those killed in the air raid.
He pointed out that security measures have been intensified to foil any possible terrorist attack in the area.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq 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.
The Islamic State group appeared on the international scene in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring the establishment of an Islamic “caliphate” from Mosul city.
Later on, the group has become notorious for its brutality, including mass killings, abductions and beheadings, prompting the U.S. to lead an international coalition to destroy it.
