Iraq: Senior Daesh commander killed in Salahuddin

Published May 27th, 2015 - 06:09 GMT
Iraqi security forces and paramilitaries deploy, on May 26, 2015, in al-Nibaie area, north-west of Baghdad, during an operation aimed at cutting off Daesh in Anbar province before a major offensive to retake the city of Ramadi. (AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)
Iraqi security forces and paramilitaries deploy, on May 26, 2015, in al-Nibaie area, north-west of Baghdad, during an operation aimed at cutting off Daesh in Anbar province before a major offensive to retake the city of Ramadi. (AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)

The Iraqi military has killed a major general of former Ba'athi regime who was a senior commander of Daesh during a cleanup operation in Iraq’s troubled northern province of Salahuddin.

According to a statement released by the Iraqi Defense Ministry on Tuesday, the Daesh provincial commander, whose name has not been released, was killed after Iraqi fighter jets carried out precision strikes in the province.

The statement further said that the slain militant was a major general of former dictator Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime.

Iraqi warplanes also bombarded Daesh positions in the town of al-Dujail, some 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, killing 17 Daesh members and destroying a communications center run by the militants in the process. No reference has been made to the death toll among Iraqi army forces in the report.

Additionally, a dozen Daesh militants were killed as Iraqi jets conducted airstrikes against militant hideouts in the town of Husaybah, which lies seven kilometers (4.5 miles) east of Anbar’s provincial capital city of Ramadi.

Two vehicles used by the militants were also destroyed during the aerial attacks.

Four other Daesh militants were killed on Tuesday as units of Iraqi government forces carried out an operation in the town of al-Karma, located 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

More than two dozen terrorist hideouts, an armored personnel carrier, a workshop used for making improvised explosive devices as well as four cars rigged with explosives were also destroyed in the process.

Separately, Iraqi army troopers backed by fighters from Popular Mobilization units managed to retake control of the directorate of defense in the strategic northern town of Beiji, located some 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad.

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