Iraqi military airstrike kills 5 Islamic State group militants

At least five Islamic State (IS) group members were killed in an air strike in northern Iraq, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.

"Under the direction of the prime minister and according to precise information from the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), military aircraft carried out an airstrike in the Tal Afar district in the Sheikh Ibrahim mountain rage which killed 5 terrorists, including an IS leader," said Maj. Gen. Yahya Rasool.

The CTS unit published a video with the news on its Twitter page. It was not clear what day the airstrike happened.

بتوجيه من القائد العام للقوات المسلحة وبالتعاون مع صقور القوة الجوية العراقية وأبطال طيران الجيش العراقي.

جهازُ مُكافحة الإرهاب يُنفذ ضربة جوية في قضاء تلعفر جبال شيخ ابراهيم.

أسفرت العملية وفقاً للمعلوماتِ الإستخبارية الإستباقية عن قتل (٥) خمسة ارهابيين pic.twitter.com/awoNZoREG5

— جهاز مكافحة الإرهاب (@iraqicts) December 21, 2022

Iraq has seen a spike in attacks in recent months, many claimed by IS.

Late on Monday, eight Iraqi civilians were killed and more were wounded when IS militants launched an attack on a village in the eastern Diyala province.

A day earlier, IS claimed responsibility for another attack in the Kirkuk province when a roadside bomb killed nine Iraqi police officers.

After a meteoric rise in Iraq and Syria in 2014 that saw it conquer vast swathes of territory, IS saw its self-proclaimed "caliphate" collapse under a wave of offensives.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but sleeper cells of the extremist group still carry out attacks in both countries.