The provincial Rapid Response elite police force, backed by Iraqi aircraft, raided the IS hideout at a large cave near al-Shoura area, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul, spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, said in a statement on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
Meanwhile, another provincial police force captured five suspected IS militants in Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, after tip-offs from civilians and intelligence reports, Rasoul said in a separate statement.
The security in Iraq has dramatically improved since Iraqi forces fully defeated IS militants across the country late in 2017.
However, militant remnants regrouped in urban and rugged areas, carrying out attacks against security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down.
(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
