BAGHDAD, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A total of 45 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in Iraqi airstrikes targeting a meeting of IS militants inside neighboring Syria, the Iraqi military said Saturday.
Acting on intelligence reports, the Iraqi F-16 jets pounded three houses connected by a trench in the town of Hajin, resulted in the destruction of the targets and the killing of 45 terrorists, a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said.
Among the killed was the IS "deputy war minister," one of the group's "media emirs" and the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's personal courier, in addition to its chief of police, according to the statement.
The airstrike is part of preemptive airstrikes against IS militants inside Syria.
On April 26, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, pledged to continue airstrikes on positions and headquarters of the IS in neighboring Syria.
"Iraq will not allow IS terrorists to regroup in Iraq, as they will not find breeding ground inside Iraq anymore," Abadi told reporters in Baghdad.
He said the IS has suffered fiasco in both Iraq and Syria, but the complex situation in Syria and the ongoing conflict on the ground gave a breathing chance for the IS in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq.
On Dec. 9, 2017, Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.
