Gunmen kill ISIS Big Turban in Hawija
Hawija (IraqINews.com) Unknown attackers have killed a senior Islamic State vigilante in Kirkuk and humiliated his corpse, an intelligence source said Sunday.
An intelligence source told Alsumaria News that unknown attackers killed Abu Ayman al-Iraqi, Islamic State’s Hisbah (vigilantism) chief in Hawija, the group’s stronghold in southwest Kirkuk, and stuck a donkey’s poster on his dead body, understandably an action of humiliation.
The corpse was found with gunshot marks in the head, according to the source.
Islamic State militants have held Hawija since 2014, when they proclaimed an “Islamic caliphate” in large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in August it had completed preparations to invade the town and eliminate IS fighters.
Since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale offensive to retake IS-held regions in 2016, occasional reports have told of instances when unknown attackers assassinated senior group members. Those were coupled with other reports telling of divisions within the group’s ranks as Iraqi forces made progress on the ground.
15 dead ISIS troops found in Tikrit
Tikrit (IraqiNews.com) Relics of fifteen Islamic State members were found in south of Tikrit, Salahuddin province, pro-government paramilitary troops said.
“Troops seized on Sunday a mass grave including relics of fifteen IS militants’ bodies in Sayed Gharib region in Balad town, south of Tikrit, while combing the region,” a statement by the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said.
“A wide-scale operation was launched earlier on the day with PMFs engaged,” it added.
An earlier statement said joint troops “destroyed on Sunday an IS rest house in al-Rufai’at, west of Balad.”
Col. Saad Mohamed, of Salahuddin Operations Command, said in press remarks previously on Sunday that troops, backed by army jets, “launched a wide-scale operation to follow IS militants in north of Dujail district, south of the province.
The operation, according to Mohamed, targeted “al-Rufai’at, al-Bou’loul, al-Farhatiya and Sayid Gharib, which witness high activity by the militant group.”
The operation comes in less than a week after an attack launched by the group, which targeted a Shiite shrine in Dujail, leaving dozens of casualties among the militants as well as PMFs.
Pivotal regions that link between each of Diyala, Salahuddin and Kirkuk, are still held by the militants which poses threats to the liberated regions. Iraqi troops are urged to prevent the militants infiltration between Salahuddin and Kirkuk provinces, especially the regions stretching along Hamreen mountains and Al-Azeem town.
It’s expected that the Iraqi government will head towards liberating other IS strongholds across Iraq, including in Salahuddin.