Air Force carried out strikes on Islamic State targets inside Syria: Iraq PM

PM Haider al-Abadi's said Iraqi Air Force carried out air strikes on Islamic State(IS) installations inside Syria.

The prime minister's office said the "deadly air strikes" were launched from the Iraqi side of the border.

An Iraqi military spokesman told Reuters that air strikes were carried out in coordination with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

"The Iraqi Air Force used F-16 jets to cross into Syria and carry out the strikes," Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told news wire Reuters.

The Islamic State once controlled large parts of the country but Iraqi forces began to sweep the areas controlled by the IS leading to brutal fights. After long protracted battle inside Iraq, the country declared in December last year that IS was pushed out of the country and decimated.

"These raids demonstrate the growing capacity of our armed forces to hunt down and liquidate terrorists," the Iraqi statement said.