A top Islamic State military leader has died in a bombing carried out by Iraqi planes in a region near Mosul, the last big stronghold of the radicals in Iraq, military sources say.
IS leader Mousa al-Kassab, known as Abu Abdul Rahman, was in his car in the Tal Afar region, 60 kilometres west of Mosul, when he was targeted by the bombing, according to the directorate of military intelligence.
In Mosul, Iraqi air force aircraft threw thousands of leaflets on areas still under the control of IS, particularly in the centre and west of the city, demanding that fighters surrender, according to military sources.
The leaflets promises combatants, who surrender to Iraqi forces and hand over weapons, a fair trial, or else their fate will be death.
Government bodies are regaining more and more territory from the radicals in and around the western part of Mosul.
The eastern half of Mosul, which is divided in two by the Tigris River, was completely liberated from IS in January and operations in the west began on February 19.
Meanwhile, the Russian military says its warplanes have killed more than 600 militants in just one week while backing the Syrian army's offensive against IS.
Col Gen Sergei Rudskoi of the military's General Staff said Russian aircraft have carried out 452 airstrikes in support of the Syrian government forces' push east of the city of Aleppo.
He says Russian airstrikes also destroyed 16 armoured vehicles and scores of pickup trucks and other cars in the area over the past week.
Rudskoi also says that Syrian government forces have recaptured 92 towns and villages across a territory of 479 square kilometres from IS in the past week.
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