Iraqi forces retake 2 towns from IS

BAGHDAD (Xinhua) - Iraqi security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga freed two towns in northern and central Iraq on Saturday after fierce clashes with the Islamic State (IS) militants, security source said.

In the early hours of the day, the Kurdish Peshmerga troops, backed by armored vehicles, artillery and US-led coalition aircraft, advanced to the town of Zumar, some 70 km northwest of Nineveh's provincial capital Mosul, and fought fierce battles with IS militants, an al-Qaida offshoot group, Halkurd Hikmat, head of the media office of the Peshmerga forces told reporters.

"The Peshmerga forces managed to enter Zumar after they seized five villages around the town, and the troops are defusing dozens of roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings in several neighborhoods inside the town," Hikmat said.

"The warplanes of the US-led coalition carried out many air strikes on the IS positions since Friday and had killed many of the IS militants and destroyed their vehicles," he added.

IS militants seized Zumar and its nearby oilfields in Ayn Zala after clashes with the Peshmerga on Aug. 3, during the major advance toward Kurdistan region in which the militants seized large areas around the Kurdish region and were about 60 km away from the regional capital city of Arbil, some 350 km north of Baghdad.

In central Iraq, the security forces, backed by some 6,000 Shiite militiamen and Iraqi aircraft, managed to free the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, some 60 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, after six hours of fierce clashes with IS militants, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The battle in the town was part of a two-day offensive that targeted positions of IS militants in seven areas around Jurf al- Sakhar, which stretches to the northwest desert land leading to the battle-field town of Ameriyat al-Fallujah, the source said.

The troops and allied militiamen are clearing the streets and booby-trapped buildings after they pushed IS militants outside the town, he added.

"The battles are underway and the troops will soon clear the strategic road between Ameriyat al-Fallujah and the road that links Baghdad with the holy Shiite city of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad," the source said.  

The recent advance of the security toward Ameriyat al-Fallujah is a significant success to the Iraqi forces, which will be able to push back the danger of IS militants on the besieged town.

Ameriyat al-Fallujah is the last major town ahead of Baghdad that is under government control, and also located some 60 km of desert land north of the Shiite holy city of Karbala, some 108 km south of Baghdad. If the militants seize Ameriyat al-Fallujah they will be closer to the Iraqi capital and will also be able to move closer to Karbala and pound them with artillery and mortars.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite militiamen and aircraft carried out a major offensive in the early hours of the day to clear three areas seized earlier by IS militants, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al- Zaidi, commander of Dijla Operations Command, said in a statement.

The rural area of Shirween and villages near the town of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, in addition to the mountainous area of Himreen, were the scenes for the major offensive against IS militants, which so far resulted in the killing of 16 militants and destroying of five of their vehicles, while a soldier and nine militiamen were killed in the battles, said al-Zaidi, whose command is responsible for security of the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahudin.

Also in the province, al-Zaidi said that a suicide bomber and an IS militant were killed by his troops in separate incidents.

Diyala province, which stretches from eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border, has long been the stronghold of al-Qaida militant groups and a hotbed for insurgency and sectarian violence since the US-led invasion broke out in 2003.

Separately, US-led warplanes launched some 20 missiles late on Friday night on an IS headquarter, just north of the provincial capital city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, leaving more than 150 militants dead and wounded, the provincial police chief told Xinhua by telephone.

Near Baghdad, at least seven soldiers were killed and 29 others wounded in the afternoon when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest among a crowd of soldiers at the gate of Taji military base in Taji area, some 20 km north of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The security situation began to drastically deteriorate in the country on June 10, when bloody clashes broke out between the Iraqi security forces and the Islamic State, an al-Qaida break- away group, who took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.