BAGHDAD, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S.-led coalition aircraft carried out airstrikes on hideouts used by militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group in the northern part of Iraq's Salahudin province, leaving at least three IS militants killed, the Iraqi military and provincial police source said on Saturday.
Based on a request by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC), the international aircraft bombarded five IS hideouts in the Makhoul mountain range in the northern part of the province, destroying all the hideouts, the JOC media office said in a statement.
Later in the day, Mohammed al-Bazi from Salahudin provincial police told Xinhua that an Iraqi force had conducted a search campaign in the area and found the remains of three bodies killed by the airstrikes.
The mountains and vast rural areas north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad have witnessed intense activities for the IS militants during the past months, despite repeated military operations to hunt them down.
The situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS across the country late in 2017.
However, IS remnants have since melted in deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem
