BAGHDAD, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) killed on Tuesday 12 militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group in an offensive near the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi military said.
Backed by Iraqi and international coalition aircraft, the troops launched at dawn an operation based on intelligence reports in Badoush area in the west of Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Yahia Rasoul, spokesman of the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi forces said in a statement.
The operation resulted in the killing of 12 IS militants, according to the statement.
On Saturday, the CTS said in a statement that its commando forces had carried out 253 operations during the previous period of 2020, killing a total of 206 IS militants and capturing 292 others across the country.
CTS activities during the year were part of efforts to eliminate the extremist IS militants who intensified their attacks on security forces and civilians in the formerly IS-controlled Sunni provinces, resulting in the killing and wounding of dozens.
The security situation in Iraq has been improving since the 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, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem
