Iraqi forces kill ISIS commander, four fighters
Security forces killed an ISIS commander and four
fighters in the Hamrin Mountains area of northeast Iraq on Sunday, the military
said.
Iraqi and US-led coalition warplanes have been carrying
out air strikes in the area, targeting militant hideouts, for three days.
The elite Counter Terrorism Service and the military's operations
command for Diyala province did not name the commander but they said in a
statement he was in charge of ISIS forces in Hamrin.
He and four "followers" were killed in the area
northeast of Baquba, the provincial capital, on Sunday, it said.
Iraq declared victory over the group, which once held large
swathes of the country, in December 2017.
With its dream of a caliphate in the Middle East now dead,
ISIS has switched to hit-and-run attacks aimed at undermining the
Baghdad government.
The militants regrouped in the Hamrin mountain range in the
northeast, which extends from Diyala province, on the border with Iran,
northwest to the River Tigris in Kirkuk province.