MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Airstrikes of the US-led international coalition destroyed on Thursday an Islamic State (ISIL) coordination headquarters, killing one of the group's northern Iraq military commanders, local media reported, citing a military source.
"The international coalition aircraft conducted airstrikes against ISIL communications center in the neighborhood of Ali Saray and three more positions of militants near Al-Hawija [District in the Kirkuk province of Iraq] <…> destroying a coordination headquarters… Prominent ISIL commander Abu Huzaifa Ansari and seven more militants were killed," the source told Iraq's Alsumaria broadcaster.
Large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria have been occupied by the ISIL militant group, which has proclaimed a caliphate on the land under its control. IS is notorious for numerous terrorist attacks and human rights atrocities.
An international coalition headed by the United States has been bombing ISIL positions in Iraq and Syria since August 2014.
