Iraqi air force

Four members of Iraq's military were wounded on Jan. 12 in a rocket attack targeting an airbase just north of Baghdad where American trainers were present until recently, Iraqi security officials said.

The attack by at least six rockets came just days after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq that house U.S. forces, causing no casualties.

The Iraqi air force on April 19 carried out a “deadly raid” against positions of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in neighboring Syria, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office said.

An Iraqi army helicopter crashed during a routine flight on Sunday, killing all seven people on board, a military statement and Iraqi air force officers said.
The Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter went down near the southern province of Kut, the statement said. Two pilots and five army officers were killed, Iraqi air force officers told Reuters.

An Iraqi army helicopter crashed during a routine flight on Nov. 12, killing all seven people on board, a military statement and Iraqi air force officers said.

Iraqi security forces launched an offensive to take back the city of Tal Afar on Aug. 20, their next objective in the U.S.-backed campaign to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.

"You either surrender, or die," Abadi said in a televised speech announcing the offensive, addressing the militants. 

Abdelhamid Abaaoud - Photo: Twitter / @sudouest

The recapture of Mosul is an achievement of the Iraqi people while the US is trying to highjack it and claims it was them who "led that war," Iraq's Vice President Nouri al-Maliki has told the RIA Novosti news agency.

U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces captured Mosul airport from Islamic State on Thursday, advancing on multiple fronts towards the jihadists’ last major stronghold in the western half of the city.

The Iraqi Air Force carried out a strike on a house where Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was thought to be meeting  other commanders, the Iraqi military said on Feb. 13, without making clear whether he had been hit. 

Backed by paramilitary forces and aerial support, Iraqi troops launched a new push on March 1 to retake a key area north of the capital, Baghdad, and dislodge Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants from the area, officials said.

The Iraqi air force struck a convoy of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in western Anbar province close to the Syrian border on Oct. 11, a military statement said. 

The fate of the militant leader, who has declared himself the leader of a caliphate in areas his ultrahardline Sunni group controls in Iraq and Syria, is unknown, the military said.