14 Daesh Militants Killed in Iraq’s Kirkuk

TEHRAN (IQNA) – Iraqi security forces on Monday killed 14 militants of the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group during a security operation in the oil-rich Kirkuk province.

Iraqi counter-terrorism forces carried out a preemptive operation to pursue Daesh terrorists in Kirkuk province, Baghdad Today quoted the Security Media Cell as saying in a press statement.

As many as 14 Daesh militants were killed in the operation, the statement read without giving further details, Iraqi News reported.

Violence in the Arab country surged with the emergence of Daesh militants who proclaimed a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Daesh militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.

However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the militants, led to the collapse of the group’s so-called caliphate.