BAGHDAD, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Air Force on Monday carried out an airstrike on a position of the Islamic State (IS) militants inside Syria near the border with Iraq, the Iraqi military said.
Acting on intelligence reports, the Iraqi F-16 warplanes pounded a "logistic headquarters" for terrorist Daesh (IS group) in al-Deshisha area inside Syria, according to a statement by the media office of the Joint Operations Command.
The statement gave no further details, but said more information about the result of the airstrike will be released later.
The airstrike is the second this month on IS positions in Deshisha area in eastern Syria after May 6 airstrike, which both came as part of preemptive airstrikes against IS militants inside Syria with Iraqi F-16 fighter jets.
On April 19, Haider al-Abadi, the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, ordered Iraqi F-16 fighter jets to carry out airstrikes on IS positions inside Syria near the border with Iraq, killing 36 IS militants, including five of the group's leaders.
On April 26, Abadi pledged to continue airstrikes on positions and headquarters of the IS in Iraq's neighboring Syria, asserting that Iraq will not interfere in Syrian affairs.
"Iraq will not allow IS terrorists to regroup in Iraq, as they will not find breeding ground inside Iraq anymore," Abadi told reporters in Baghdad.
He said that IS group has suffered fiasco in both Iraq and Syria, but the complex situation in Syria and the ongoing conflict on the ground gave a breathing chance for IS in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq.
On Dec. 9, 2017, Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.
