News / Iraq

Iraqi warplanes kill 17 Daesh militants near Syria border

Tuesday, 10 October 2017 2:33 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 10 October 2017 4:50 PM ]

This file picture shows an F-16 fighter jet operated by the Iraqi Air Force.

A high-ranking Iraqi military official says more than a dozen Daesh Takfiri terrorists were killed when Iraqi Air Force fighter jets bombarded their positions in the country’s troubled western province of Anbar near the border with Syria.

Brigadier General Saleh Ali told Jordan’s official Petra news agency on Tuesday that 17 Daesh militants were killed as Iraqi military aircraft launched precision strikes against a road linking the small town of Akashat to the militant-held town of al-Qa'im, located nearly 400 kilometers northwest of the capital Baghdad.

He added that the aerial assaults also destroyed a number of Daesh arms depots and vehicles in the surrounding areas.

Iraq recovers bodies of plane crew shot down by Daesh

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Air Force stated on Tuesday that the bodies of two pilots of a single-engine turboprop Cessna 208 Caravan plane shot down by Daesh terrorists over the northern town of Hawijah last year have been found.

This file picture shows an Iraqi Air Force Cessna 208 Caravan plane launching a laser-guided Hellfire missile.

“The [extremists] had hidden the bodies of Brigadier General Ali al-Ubudi and Major Mohammed al-Shikhli,” the statement said.

It added that a search was under way for the body of the third crew member, Colonel Mohammed Abdel Kassar.

On March 16, 2016, Daesh said it used anti-aircraft artillery to down the plane, which had been bombing Daesh outposts in Hawijah, located 45 kilometers west of Kirkuk.

Hundreds of Daesh suspects surrender to Kurdish Peshmerga forces

Separately, several hundred suspected Daesh militants have turned themselves in to Kurdish Peshmerga forces after Iraqi government forces and allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, recaptured their last stronghold in northern Iraq.

A Kurdish security official, requesting anonymity, told Reuters on Tuesday that the suspects were part of a group of men, who fled toward Kurdish-held lines when Iraqi army and Hashd al-Sha’abi forces retook Hawijah.

Tanks and vehicles of the combined Iraqi forces and Popular Mobilization Units (Hashd al-Sha’abi) are seen on the advance towards villages between the northern Iraqi cities of Hawijah and Kirkuk on October 6, 2017, after retaking Hawijah from Daesh Takfiri militants a day before. (Photo by AFP)

On October 5, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqi armed forces had liberated Hawijah, driving Daesh Takfiris out of their last bastion in Kirkuk province.

“I announce the liberation of the town of Hawijah,” Abadi said, adding, “Only the outskirts remain to be recaptured.”

Abadi described the latest gain as a “victory not just of Iraq but of the whole world.”

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