Nearly dozen militants slain as Iraqi forces thwart attacks in Kirkuk

Nearly a dozen members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group have been killed after Iraqi security forces, supported by Popular Mobilization Units, foiled their attacks in the country’s northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Nearly a dozen members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group have been killed after Iraqi security forces, supported by Popular Mobilization Units, foiled their attacks in the country’s northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said a joint force from Hawija police and voluntary fighters, better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi, repelled militant attacks on the villages of Gharib and Hanaf, south of the provincial capital city of Kirkuk, killing 11 extremists in the process, Arabic-language al-Taghier television network reported.

Rasool added that five Takfiris clad in explosive vests were among the slain militants.

A policeman and a Hashd al-Sha’abi fighter were killed during the clashes as well.  

Separately, the JOC announced in a statement that Iraqi F-16 fighter jets had bombarded Daesh positions and a weapons cache in Syria’s Hegeen region, located 40 kilometers from the border town of al-Qa’im in Iraq’s western province of al-Anbar.

The statement added that the militant sites were completely destroyed in the aerial attacks.