By Mohamed Walid and Serhad Shakir

NINEVEH, Iraq

Seven Daesh terrorists were killed Friday in an offensive carried out by Iraqi forces west of Mosul, regional capital of the northern Nineveh province, according to Iraqi security sources.

“The operation was conducted in the mountainous region around the village of Badush,” Army Lieutenant-Colonel Haitham Ahmed told Anadolu Agency.

According to Badush, army units backed by helicopter gunships struck a number of tunnels and hideouts used by the terrorist group.

Eyad al-Asali, a Nineveh police lieutenant, told Anadolu Agency that 12 suspected Daesh members had been rounded up in separate security operations conducted in the Al-Rahmaniya area east of Mosul.

Late last year, officials in Baghdad said Daesh's military presence in Iraq had been all but destroyed. It appears, however, that the terrorist group still maintains a limited presence in parts of northern and western Iraq.