Death toll of IS militants rises to 16 after Iraqi airstrikes on hideouts

Baghdad: Iraqi security forces have found two more bodies of Islamic State (IS) militants who were killed in a recent military operation in the western province of Anbar, bringing the death toll of IS militants to 16.

Iraqi forces carried out an airdrop operation at 4:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday targeting IS hideouts in the Anbar desert, where they found the two bodies, according to a statement from the Security Media Cell (SMC), a media outlet affiliated with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command.

The statement also noted that Iraqi security forces used helicopter gunships to destroy three trucks used by IS militants in the desert on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

On August 29, Iraqi forces, backed by US-led coalition forces, carried out airstrikes on four well-camouflaged hideouts and engaged in clashes with IS militants who had fled the airstrikes, killing 14 of them, including important IS leaders, according to the SMC.

The security situation in Iraq has improved since the defeat of the IS in 2017.

However, IS remnants have sneaked into urban centres, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.

The US military and Iraq launched a joint raid targeting suspected IS militants in the country’s western desert that killed at least 15 people and left seven American troops hurt, officials said last Saturday.

For years after dislodging the militants from their self-declared caliphate across Iraq and Syria, US forces have fought the IS, though the casualties from this raid were higher than in previous ones.

The US military’s Central Command said the militants were armed with “numerous weapons, grenades, and explosive ‘suicide’ belts” during the raid last Thursday, which Iraqi forces said happened in the country’s Anbar Desert.

Last month, the US military said the number of attacks claimed by IS in Syria and Iraq was on track to double this year, compared with the year before.

 IS claimed 153 attacks in the two countries in the first six months of 2024, compared with 121 attacks in all of 2023.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last October, US military presence in the region has become particularly contentious.

An umbrella group of Iran-backed militias calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has periodically launched drone attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria, which they said was in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in the ongoing war in Gaza and were aimed at forcing US forces to withdraw from Iraq.