Iraqi army, Kurdish forces hunt down Daesh/ISIS militants in Nineveh

By Ali Jawad

BAGHDAD (AA) – The Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Saturday launched a joint military operation to hunt down Daesh/ISIS militants in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, according to defense ministry.

The joint forces received air support from a US-led international coalition.

“The security operation aims to hunt down the remnants of Daesh/ISIS terrorist gangs in the areas between (the positions of) the Peshmerga forces and the federal forces,” the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier on Saturday, two workers in the coal industry were killed in an armed Daesh/ISIS attack on a village in Hawija district, southwest of Kirkuk, according to an Iraqi security source.

Attacks blamed on Daesh/ISIS fighters have escalated in Iraq in recent months, especially in the provinces of Salahuddin, Diyala, and Kirkuk, known as the "Triangle of Death."

In 2017, Iraq declared victory over Daesh/ISIS by reclaiming all of its territories – about a third of the country’s area – invaded by the terror group in 2014.

But the terrorist group still maintains sleeper cells in large areas of Iraq and periodically launches attacks. The Iraqi army continues to carry out frequent operations against the group in parts of the country.

* Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara