Iraqi Airstrike Targets Position Used by Daesh Commanders in Syria - PM

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Iraqi military aircraft have carried out new airstrikes in Syria and one of the strikes hit the position used by the commanders of the Daesh terrorist group, the Iraqi Prime Minister's office said on Sunday.

"By the order of the head of the Council of Ministers of Iraq, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Haider Abadi… Iraqi Air Force… struck the position of the Daesh* terrorist commanders, south of [the town of] Deshaisha on the territory of Syria," the prime minister's office said in a statement.

Later in the day, Iraqi Shiite militia, who are formally part of the Iraqi Armed Forces, said that they have killed four Daesh militants on the the territory of Syria during an artillery attack. As reported by the militia, an artillery strike was inflicted on the position of terrorists in the Syrian village of East Dahaj near the border between the two countries.

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On April 19, Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Tahseen Khafaji told Sputnik that the airstrikes had nothing to do with the international coalition. He added that Iraq would continue carrying out strikes against the Daesh in Syria if it received intelligence about any threats to the country's security.

Later that month, Fares Shehabi, a member of the Syrian parliament for Aleppo and chairman of the Syrian Federation of Industry, told Sputnik that Iraqi airstrikes on Daesh positions in Syria would be always approved by Damascus as long as there is a mutual agreement between the two countries on the matter.

Early in April, Abadi declared that Iraqi military plans to launch a cross-border operation to fight terrorism on Syria's soil. The prime minister stressed that Iraq did not intend to violate any country’s sovereignty.

Daesh had kept vast territories of Iraq under its control since 2014, when Mosul, the country’s second-biggest city, was seized by militants and became their so-called capital in the country.

READ MORE: Influential Daesh leader Arrested in Northern Iraq — Reports

In summer 2017, Iraqi forces regained control over the city, while later in November, over the town of Rawa, the last Daesh stronghold in the country. In December, Haider Abadi declared an end to the country's fight against Daesh as Iraqi troops re-established complete control over the country's Syrian border. However, he admitted that militants were still present in some pockets of the country but pledged to eliminate them.

*Daesh (IS/ISIS/ISIL/Islamic state) — a terrorist group banned in Russia.