At Least 40 ISIL Militants Annihilated in Iraq Air Raids West of Mosul

The Iraqi Army’s information center said in a statement that the ISIL militants were preparing to carry out an attack on Popular Mobilization Forces, locally known as Hashd al-Shaabi, in Ein al-Hissan village South of Tal Afar that came under the aerial attack in al-Qirawan region, West of Mosul.

Three ISIL vehicles were destroyed in the air raids and all militants inside the vehicles were annihilated, the statement added.

The new casualties on the ISIL militants near the terror group’s last urban bastion in Northern Iraq comes a day after the Iraqi defense ministry announced that ISIL has lost over 50 percent of its militants in the city of Mosul in Nineveh province in the last 100 days.

“The intelligence obtained by us indicates that there have been over 6,000 ISIL terrorists in Mosul and around 3,400 of them have been killed in battles with Iraq’s joint military forces in the major city of Nineveh province,” Iraqi Defense Ministry Spokesman Colonel Laith al-Naimi said on Wednesday.

He noted that over 250 bomb-laden vehicles and the entire bomb-making workshops of the terrorists have been destroyed in Mosul which means that the ISIL has been paralyzed by the Iraqi forces.

Earlier on Wednesday, Iraqi rapid response forces have begun targeting the ISIL positions on the Western bank of the Tigris River in Mosul, after officials announced the complete recapture of the Eastern side.

Mopping-up operations were still under way in Rashidiya, the last district liberated from the militants on the East bank of the Tigris to flush out remaining militants in a pocket in the Northeastern district.