Iraq's Defense Ministry said in the statement that around two dozen ISIL commander were among those killed in the airstrikes conducted on ISIS positions South of Tal Abtah in Nineveh Province.

The statement, published by Sumeriya News, added that the operation resulted in the annihilation of 20 ISIL commanders along with 50 other members of the terror outfit.

In a separate operation, the Iraqi warplanes destroyed an ISIS weapon and ammunition cache and a workshop used by the militants for making IEDs and other improvised devices in the Akashat Desert in Western Anbar Province.

Earlier on Thursday, the ISIL terrorists exploded two car bombs and an explosive package in Kokjeli, West of Mosul, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more.

Also on Thursday, the United Nations said in a report that up to four Iraqi aid workers and at least seven civilians were killed by indiscriminate mortar fire this week during aid distribution in two separate incidents in Eastern Mosul.

A UN statement did not assign blame for the attacks, but ISIL militants retreating from the Iraqi military's offensive in the Northern city have repeatedly shelled "liberated" areas, killing or wounding scores of residents fleeing in the opposite direction, the Daily Star reported.

The operation in Mosul, the terrorists' last major stronghold in Iraq, has retaken a quarter of the city but the troops' advance has been slow and punishing.

The Iraqi army and volunteer fighters have been leading a large offensive to retake Mosul since October 17. The Northern city of Mosul fell to ISIL in 2014, when the terror outfit began its campaign of death and destruction in the Arab country, FNA reported.

219