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Security forces retake villages in western Iraq

Xinhua, January 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Iraqi security forces on Saturday recaptured two villages after clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's western province of Anbar, while the IS militant group executed seven of its members, including a local leader, a government statement and a security source said.

The Iraqi army and allied Sunni tribesmen backed by aircraft launched an offensive on IS positions in west of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, and managed to free the villages of Albu Haiyan, Alous and surrounding areas after fierce clashes, a Defense Ministry statement said.

The battles are still under way, with heavy casualties among IS militants, the statement said without giving further details.

For months, Ramadi has been the scene of fierce clashes between the IS militants and the security forces, which has gained support from some local Sunni tribes who rejected the presence of the extremist IS group.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, the IS militants executed one of its leaders and four of his aides after being accused of trying to topple their IS leadership in Sansil area near the town of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The IS militants hung the bodies of the executed militants on trees in front of the people to terrorize whoever think of working against the extremist militants even if they were their own members, the source said.

Separately, the IS group executed two more of its members at the militant-seized village of Shiqraq, just north of Maqdadiyah, after the two members sent their families out of the village in a violation to the group's instructions, the source added.

The security situation in Iraq began to drastically deteriorate since June 10, when bloody clashes broke out between the Iraqi security forces and the IS group, an al-Qaida offshoot, who took control of the country's northern province of Nineveh and later seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in other predominantly Sunni provinces. Endit