Iraqi F-16s hit Daesh positions in Mosul: Army source

By Ali Jawad

BAGHDAD (AA) – Iraqi army F-16s carried out several overnight strikes late Sunday targeting positions associated with the Daesh terrorist group in the northern city of Mosul, according to an Iraqi military source.

"For the first time, F-16s took off from the Balad Airbase in the northern Saladin province with a view to striking Daesh targets in Mosul," Ahmed Hasan, an aircraft technician based at the airbase, told Anadolu Agency late Sunday.

On the same day, Daesh militants reportedly stepped up their attacks on sites in northern Iraq captured earlier by Iraqi forces.

In a separate development on Sunday, Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militiamen foiled an attempted suicide attack by Daesh terrorists in the Al-Harariyat area of Saladin’s Makhoul Mountain region, the Iraqi army said in a statement.

The Hashd al-Shaabi is an umbrella group of pro-government Shia militias that is expected to soon be incorporated into the Iraqi armed forces.

According to the army statement, some 20 terrorists were killed in the failed attack and a Daesh vehicle captured.

On Sunday morning, Daesh militants attacked areas in which Hashd al-Shabbi militiamen were deployed, including the village of Ain al-Hassan near the Tal Afar airport west of Mosul.

The assault came one day after the terrorist group staged a similar attack on the nearby village of Al-Sharia al-Aulia.

In late October, the Iraqi army -- backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and local allies on the ground -- launched a wide-ranging offensive to retake Mosul, which was overrun by Daesh in mid-2014.