BAGHDAD, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ten Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in an airstrike on a hideout near the city of Samarra in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, the Iraqi military said Thursday.

An Iraqi helicopter gunship carried out the airstrike on an abandoned house, where a group of IS militants were believed to be hiding, some 120 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Yahya Rasoul, spokesperson of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, said in a statement.

The bombardment destroyed the hideout and killed about 10 IS militants inside, the statement said, without saying when the airstrikes occurred.

The security situation in Iraq has greatly improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS across the country in late 2017.

However, small IS groups and individuals have regrouped in urban and rugged areas, and are carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite the operations to hunt them down.