BAGHDAD, May 25 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi army helicopter was slightly hit by a machinegun on Monday during an operation by Islamic State (IS) militants in the western province of Anbar, the Iraqi military said.
The incident took place when an army force destroyed IS positions and seized weapons and explosives during an operation to hunt down IS militants in a desert area near the two of al-Rutba, some 400 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
It said that the troops were backed by two helicopter gunships and during the operation the helicopters pounded three IS vehicles, but one of the vehicles was carrying a heavy machinegun and opened fire at the helicopters.
One of the helicopters was slightly damaged, but managed to return to the base safely, the statement added.
Earlier in the day, an Iraqi army source told Xinhua that one helicopter was shot down after being attacked by the extremist IS militants in south of al-Rutba.
The incident came as the Iraqi security forces are carrying out operations to hunt down IS militants in the desert and rugged areas in the provinces of Anbar, Salahudin and Nineveh as well as the border areas with Syria.
The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS militants across the country late in 2017.
However, IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, launching frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem
