The U.S. military’s Central Command says three known Islamic State hiding places have been destroyed in rural Iraq.
In a statement the command says aircraft from the anti-ISIS coalition known as Operation Inherent Resolve, in coordination with the Iraqi government, hit the camps Friday in Wadi al-Shai in a rural Kirkuk province, about 26 kilometers west of Iraq’s Tuz Khurmatu.
“Blowing up ISIS hideouts,” said Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a Coalition spokesman, “ultimately results in security in cities and villages.” He added that each Coalition airstrike is done at the request of the Iraqi government “to help achieve a permanent defeat” of the militants.
Fighters and followers of the Islamic State, undaunted by the collapse of the terror group’s self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, are growing bolder and more dangerous, according to recent assessments by U.S. counterterrorism officials.