Al-Ma'aloumeh news website quoted Abu Ali al-Basri, the director general of Iraqi Interior Ministry's Counter-Terrorism Department, as saying that 16 senior aides to Baghdadi were killed in the attacks carried out by Iraqi F-16 fighter jets in al-Souseh region in Southeastern Deir Ezzur.
He was further quoted by the news website as reporting that a sum of 13 terrorists were also killed in the second round of the air raids on a base of ISIL's suicide attackers in Eastern Syria, adding that the terrorists were planning to stage attacks on Baghdad, Karbala, Samera and Kirkuk after crossing Syria's border into Iraq.
Moshtaq Anad Haram al-Mohammadi Araghi nom de guerre Abu Omar, who was ISIL's war minister and had joined ISIL in 2005, was killed in the air raids.
In November, the Iraqi Air Force pounded a key base and a large arms depot of the ISIL terrorists in Eastern Syria near the border, inflicting tens of casualties on the terrorists.
The Joint Operation Command said in a statement that the Iraqi F-16 fighter jets targeted ISIL's bases on Syria's soil at the order of Iraq's General Command of the Armed Forces and under the supervision of the Joint Operation Command.
The statement said that the warplanes bombed an arms and ammunition depot of ISIL-affiliated Fayalq al-Farouq in al-Souseh region in Southeastern Deir Ezzur, adding that the depot contained a large number of missiles and explosives.
It added that a sum of 10 terrorists were killed in the raid.
The statement went on to say that the fighter jets attacked al-Baqouz region in Southeastern Deir Ezzur and bombed a base of Fayalq al-Farouq, destroying different missiles and killing a sum of 30 terrorists at the base.
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