3 Daesh leaders killed in Iraq’s W. Mosul: Army source

By Serhad Shaker

NINEVEH, Iraq

Three leaders of the Daesh terrorist group have been killed in separate incidents in western Mosul, an Iraqi military source said Monday.

"Daesh’s head of security in Mosul, Aziz Ibrahim Faris al-Anzi, was killed today [Monday] by an airstrike near the Republican Hospital in the Al-Sihha district," Army Lieutenant-Colonel Abdul Salam al-Jubouri told Anadolu Agency.

"Another terrorist leader, Ali Ibrahim Mohamed, was also killed Monday in clashes with anti-terrorism forces in western Mosul’s Al-Tanak neighborhood,” he said.

"This comes one day after Abu Quhafa, leader of Daesh’s ‘services bureau’ in Mosul, was killed by [Interior Ministry-affiliated] Rapid Reaction Forces,” al-Jubouri added.

In February, Iraqi ground forces -- backed by a U.S.-led air coalition -- began fresh operations aimed at ousting Daesh from western Mosul, the terrorist group’s last stronghold in northern Iraq.

The offensive is part of a wider campaign launched last October to retake the entire city, which Daesh overran -- along with much of northern and western Iraq -- in mid-2014.