Iraq's Popular Forces Kill 8 Senior Daesh Members in Kirkuk

“In the second phase of our anti-terror operations, Iraqi troops and popular fighters managed to kill eight Daesh ringleaders in Kirkuk's Wadi al-Shay,” Yilmaz Najar, who commands Iraqi Turkmen Popular Forces in north of the country, said on Saturday.

He added that 12 hideouts belonging to the terrorists were also destroyed in the operations.

The operations were conducted with the aim of hunting down Daesh remnants in Kirkuk, Najar said.

Earlier this week, Iraqi military aircraft bombarded the terrorists’ hideouts south of Kirkuk, killing 23 of them.

Daesh has intensified its attacks in Iraq amid Baghdad’s call on the US to pull out its forces from the Arab country.

In a vote on January 5, the Iraqi parliament called for an end to the presence of all foreign troops, including Americans.

The vote came two days after the US military - acting on US President Donald Trump’s order - launched a fatal drone strike on senior Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani upon his arrival in the Iraqi capital at the invitation of the Baghdad government.

The attack also claimed the lives of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s PMU or Hashd al-Sha’abi, along with eight other Iranian and Iraqi people.

Washington has threatened sanctions should US troops be expelled instead of heeding the Iraqi parliament’s call to end the occupation of the country.