BAGHDAD: At least 8 Islamic State militants were killed by a U.S.-led coalition airstrike late Friday in Kirkuk in northern Iraq, according to an Iraqi police officer.
The strike targeted a group of militants planning to stage an attack against Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northwestern Kirkuk, police captain Hamed al-Ebeidi told Anadolu Agency.
Meanwhile, a Peshmerga fighter was killed in clashes with IS militants in the area on Friday, al-Ebeidi said.
IS still holds some areas in southwestern Kirkuk province, which the terrorist group overran -- along vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq -- in 2014.
In late October, the Iraqi army, backed by U.S.-led coalition warplanes, launched a major offensive to recapture Mosul, once Iraq’s second largest city in terms of population, from the terrorist group.
