BAGHDAD, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi forces on Friday killed three Islamic State (IS) militants and destroyed their hideout in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, the Iraqi military said.

Acting on intelligence reports, a joint force from the Iraqi army and Saraya al-Salam paramilitary force carried out an operation against an IS hideout near al-Tharthar lake west the city of Samaraa, some 120 km north the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a statement by Samaraa Operations Command said.

It said the troops pounded the IS hideout with mortar rounds and killed three of them, while confiscating weapons, ammunition and other supplies found in the destroyed hideout.

Saraya al-Salam is a militia affiliated with Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and part of Hashd Shaabi.

In December 2017, Iraq declared full liberation from the IS after the security forces and the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units, backed by the anti-IS international coalition, recaptured all areas once seized by the extremist group.

However, IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out guerrilla attacks from time to time against the security forces and civilians.