This file photo shows an Iraqi Air Force AC-208 Cessna Caravan aircrew launch a Hellfire missile during a previous test at a target on the Aziziyah Training Range, south of Baghdad, Nov. 8, 2010. US Army photo by SGT Brandon Bolick.
On October 7, the Iraqi military announced that it had eliminated a senior commander of ISIS in the northern province of Kirkuk.
Spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Major General Yehia Rasool, said that the commander, Muhammed Muthari al-Obaidi, was killed along with two of his guards in Wadi Zaghaytun as a result of a pinpoint airstrike that was carried out by an AC-208 Combat Caravan of the Iraqi Air Force.
According to Maj. Gen. Rasool, the senior ISIS commander was located by the Federal Intelligence & Investigations Agency. Al-Obaidi, also known by his nom de guerre “Abu Mustafa,” served as ISIS General Military Commissioner in Kirkuk.
The Iraqi military, intelligence and security forces stepped up their counter-terrorism operations in Kirkuk in the last few weeks following a series of attacks by ISIS cells. On October 5, attack helicopters of the armed forces destroyed two vehicles of the terrorist group during a routine armed patrol in the province.
ISIS cells in Kirkuk and other parts of northern Iraq, sustained heavy human and material losses as a result of recent counter-terrorism operations in the region. Nevertheless, they are still fairly active. The terrorists carried out two attacks in Kirkuk over the last week only.
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