BAGHDAD, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- A total of eight Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Thursday in two rocket attacks in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, the Iraqi military said.
Iraqi security forces conducted a rocket attack targeting five IS militants on three motorcycles as they entered a hideout in Qara-Chokh Mountain in the northern part of Salahudin province, killing all the militants, according to a statement by the media office affiliated with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC).
Later on, the troops fired another rocket on the same site when three IS militants came to evacuate the casualties of the first attack, killing them all, the JOC statement said.
The security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces declared they had fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017.
IS remnants, however, have since melted or regrouped in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down.
