US coalition airstrike kills 20 IS militants outside Mosul
US coalition airstrike kills 20 IS militants outside Mosul
The Iraqi government declared victory over IS but the military has continued regular operations targeting mostly desert areas along the porous Syrian border.
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Iraq said the US-led coalition carried out the airstrike. [Getty]
An Iraqi military spokesman said that an airstrike has killed 20 Islamic State group militants outside the northern city of Mosul, in a statement issued on Monday.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said the slain fighters were hiding inside a tunnel in Badoush area northwest of Mosul, when they were targeted by strike aircraft.
Rasool said the strike was carried out by the US-led coalition, but didn't give a date for the strike.
In the early days of IS' onslaught in June 2014 in northern Iraq, the militants killed some 600 male Shia inmates from Baduosh prison.
Over the past three years, IS has gradually been driven out of nearly all the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.
But the group still maintains a presence in the Syrian desert and remote areas along the Syria-Iraq border.
Iraq's air force has carried out several strikes on IS-held territory in Syria since April, including one targeting "the headquarters of IS terrorist gang leaders" in Hajin on May 24.
In December, the Iraqi government declared victory over IS but the military has continued regular operations targeting mostly desert areas along the porous Syrian border.
Mosul fell to Iraqi forces almost a year ago, after a gruelling and bloody offensive that saw thousands of militants, soldiers and civilians killed.
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