Iraqi forces kill 12 IS militants in Salahudin clashes

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-13 18:25:03|Editor: Mengjie
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TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi forces on Sunday killed 12 Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin after fierce clashes, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

The clashes erupted before dawn when dozens of IS militants attacked the military bases of the security forces after heavy mortar barrage and machine guns in Zuwiyah area, some 250 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The troops fought back overnight and foiled the attackers from storming their bases, but the militants managed to block the main road between Salahudin's province capital Tikrit and the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, the source said.

In the morning, reinforcement troops and helicopter gunships dispatched to the area and reopened the main road after defeating the extremist militant, who withdrew to their redoubts in Makhoul mountain range in the northern part of Tikrit, which itself located some 170 km north of Baghdad, the source added.

After the withdrawal of the extremist militants, the troops found 12 of their bodies and two destroyed armored vehicles, three trucks along with large amount of weapons and ammunition left in the battlefields, the source said.

The clashes also resulted in the killing of three soldiers and the wounding of eight others, the source added.

In Salahudin province, the terrorist IS group still in control of Makhoul mountain range and the villages between the range and the Tigris River, in addition to the eastern bank of the town of Shirqat, about 280 km north of Baghdad, as well as its surrounding villages and rural area that stretches to the IS-held town of Hawijah in the western part of the oil-rich province of Kikruk.

Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units freed Tikrit and other key cities and towns in the predominately Sunni Arab province of Salahudin from the extremist IS group which seized large part of the province in June 2014.

The incident came as the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared Mosul's liberation on July 10 after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

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