Baghdad, May 25 (IANS/EFE): At least 40 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in a series of air strikes launched by the US-led international coalition against jihadi strongholds in and around Mosul, in northern Iraq.

A security official from the Democratic National Union of Kurdistan, Ghias al-Surji, said the attacks were launched by international coalition warplanes against positions in central Mosul, and also to the south and west of the provincial capital.

Among the dead were apparently three IS leaders, identified as Majbal Diban Khalaf al-Luizi, Ahmed Ali al-Jubouri and Bassem Mohamed Ali al-Fanush.

Al-Surji added that among the targets hit was a police station that was struck by four missiles in the centre of Mosul, and which the insurgents used as a headquarters.

Additionally, two IS security facilities were bombed in the villages of Duizat and Kibruk, located about 50 kms south of Mosul.

A security centre in the town of Albu Khidr was also attacked, 60 kms west of Mosul, and another in the town of Tel Keppe, 15 kms north of Mosul.

The recent deaths raise the number of IS operatives killed on Monday to 71, after Kurdish security sources reported that 31 other members of IS were killed in the morning by aerial bombardments of the international coalition south of Mosul.