Senior ISIL Commander, Aides Hunted in Baghdad

TEHRAN (Defapress)- The Iraqi police reported that its forces launched an attack on ISIL in the town of al-Sharaqat North of Baghdad, killing Abu Salam Araqi, a notorious field commander of the ISIL nom de guerre Asab of Daesh (ISIL), and five of his aides.

The police further said that Abu Salam was a mastermind in ISIL, adding that he was behind planning ISIL's bomb operations.

Abu Salam and his aides were killed in a hideout in al-Sharaqat Jazeera.

Press tv reported earlier today that he Iraqi military conducted an airstrike against the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) Takfiri terrorist group in Syria's Eastern Deir Ezzur province, killing 45 terrorists.

"Iraqi F-16 jets carried out a successful airstrike that targeted a meeting of Daesh leaders ... in … Hajin area within Syrian territory. The operation resulted in the complete destruction of the targets, and the killing of around 45 terrorists," the military's joint operations command said in statement on Saturday.

Daesh’s "deputy war minister", one of its “media emirs", the personal courier of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the group’s chief of police were among those killed, the statement added.

Three houses linked by an underground tunnel were also destroyed, it said, adding that the airstrike was carried out based on "intelligence" and at the request of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The Iraqi Air Force has carried out several such raids against the Takfiri militant group in Syria since last year.

Iraqi authorities have stated that they work closely with the Syrian government to monitor and target terrorist targets based on the efforts of intelligence and information departments of the security coordination committee formed between Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran and Moscow years ago, as well as coordination with the so-called anti-Daesh coalition led by the US.

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