3 senior IS leaders killed in airstrikes on western Mosul

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Three senior Islamic State members were killed in Iraqi army airstrikes that targeted their locations in a western Mosul district, according to the Iraqi military intelligence services.

The three were killed when airstrikes pounded al-Tanak district, according to information from the intelligence service.

Those include Yunus al-Jubouri, aka Abu Hajar al-Arabi, who was commanding suicide fighters, Azab Mamoud Taha, aka Abu Mohamed, who was in charge of drafting children fighters known as “Cubs of the Caliphate” and Sabah al-Mawla, aka Abu Aws al-Iraqi, who was the chief booby-trapping officer for the so-called “Nineveh State”.

Earlier strikes on Monday by the U.S.-led coalition at the same district had left four other senior members dead, according to the intelligence service. Those killed Monday included Mujahed (Abu Mostafa) al-Anzi, a Saudi national in charge of the “Zakat bureau”, and Hazem(Abu Qays al-Jubouri), a senior IS police official.

Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, have been fighting IS since October to retake Mosul, the group’s largest stronghold which fell in militants’ hands in 2014. Iraqi and coalition commanders have reiterated that IS members numbers were diminishing with many senior leaders killed since operations launched to retake the western region in February.