IS governor of Iraqi city killed: Report

Baghdad, May 28 (IANS/AKI) The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group's self-styled governor of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was killed in the US-led international coalition air raids, media reported on Thursday.

Coalition jets pounded IS positions in northern Iraq, killing Ibrahim Younis al-Hamdani in western Mosul and destroying military equipment, the BasNews agency said, citing an Iraqi defence ministry statement issued late on Wednesday.

"Several other militants were killed and positions destroyed during the assault," BasNews quoted the ministry statement as saying.

Broadcaster Rudaw TV also reported Hamdani's killing on its website, citing the defence ministry's statement.

Coalition war planes bombed IS militants in the town of Sinjar in Nineveh province, killing dozens of jihadis and destroying heavy weaponry, Kurdish Peshmerga's Brig. Gen. Izzadin Sndi confirmed to BasNews.

Sndi said his forces had no immediate information on casualties from the air raids.

Coalition air raids damaged IS positions in several villages around Makhmour, lying to the east of the autonomous Kurdistan regional capital Erbil, BasNews quoted officials as confirming.

IS overran Mosul in June last year after the rapid capitulation of the Iraqi military, whose members reportedly abandoned their posts as the jihadis advanced.

--IANS/AKI

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