By Gulsen Topcu

SALADIN, Iraq

Six Daesh terrorists were killed during security operations in northern Iraq, the Security Press Center said Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the center, Brigadier General Yahya Resul, said the Daesh members were killed by Iraqi security forces affiliated with the army and police during operations backed by the Iraqi Air Force in Saladin governorate's administrative center, Tikrit.

Tikrit is located northwest of the country's capital, Baghdad.

Although Baghdad says the territory was cleared of Daesh last December, sleeper cells of the terrorist organization sometimes carry out attacks.

Daesh overran vast swathes of northern and western Iraq in mid-2014. But its military presence was largely destroyed late last year following a nine-month campaign by the Iraqi army centered on the northern city of Mosul.