Saddam-era general killed by Iraqi forces in Kirkuk

A senior general of the former Iraqi Ba’athist regime of slain dictator, Saddam Hussein, has reportedly been killed in the province of Kirkuk in Iraq’s north.

Iraqi volunteer forces said Khaled Faisal, who “was a former General in the National Intelligence Service under the regime of Saddam Hussein,” was killed in an operation by the Iraqi volunteer forces south of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, English-language online newspaper Iraqi News reported.

Faisal acted as a self-proclaimed military commander of the Takfiri ISIL group in the area of al-Bashir in the city, the forces added.

Faisal’s son, identified as Hamaza, was also killed in the operation.

Iraqi forces earlier killed Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the former commander of the so-called Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order under Hussein, during a preemptive operation in the eastern part of Iraqi city of Tikrit.

Douri remained at large following the US-led invasion of Iraq, which toppled Saddam in 2003.

The ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed militants took control of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

The terrorists have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against all Iraqi communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have been engaged in joint operations to drive the terrorists out of the areas they have seized.

IA/HJL/SS

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