BAGHDAD, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Eight Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Sunday in an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition aircraft in the northern province of Nineveh while security forces captured nine IS extremist militants in the central Salahudin province, the Iraqi military said.
Acting on intelligence reports from Nineveh's Operations Command, the coalition aircraft conducted an airstrike against IS positions at an island in the Tigris River, named Hawi Aslan, near the town of Hammam al-Alil, some 20 km south of the provincial capital Mosul, a statement by the media office of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said.
The airstrike resulted in the killing of eight of the extremist IS militants, according to the JOC statement.
Separately, according to intelligence reports, a force from Salahudin's Operations Command arrested nine IS militants, believed that they planned to carry out attacks on the provincial council building and security forces, the JOC said in a separate statement without giving further details.
The security situation in Iraq was dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017.
IS remnants, however, have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out frequent hit-and-run attacks against security forces and civilians.
