At least 42 members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group have been killed in separate operations by the Iraqi Air Force in the country’s northern province of Nineveh.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that 25 Daesh terrorists were killed as Iraqi military aircraft launched precision strikes against a number of terrorists’ hideouts in al-Jamaliyah region northwest of Mosul and the village of Tal Abra near Tal Afar city, Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network reported.
Additionally, 17 Daesh terrorists were killed when Iraqi fighter jets carried out attacks against their positions in Badush village northwest of Mosul.
Iraqi warplanes also struck and destroyed the terrorist group’s caches of Composition C-4 plastic explosive and trinitrotoluene in Ayn al-Wakhmah al-Karablah village of the western province of Anbar.
Elsewhere in the al-Mosana district of eastern Mosul, Iraqi forces discovered a considerable amount of rockets and military hardware belonging to Daesh extremists.
Meanwhile, soldiers from the 15th battalion of the Iraqi army have established full control over al-Jamaliyah and Sheikh Mohammad villages west of Mosul.
Iraqi pro-government fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units -- commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi -- freed tens of civilians who had been taken hostage by Daesh extremists in the two areas.
Iraqi army soldiers, supported by Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched a joint operation on October 17, 2016 to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.
On Thursday, the UN special envoy for Iraq, Jan Kubis, expressed hope for full liberation of the crisis-hit Arab country from the Daesh terrorists in near future, saying that the days of Daesh are numbered.
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He noted that Baghdad’s steady progress in recapturing the eastern part of Mosul “should not conceal that fighting has been and will be a massive challenge, in particular inside the old city in western Mosul.”