Iraqi forces advance to free Salahudin province from IS militants

Iraqi security forces on Wednesday continued their biggest offensive for the third day in Salahudin province to free the northern parts of the province from the Islamic State (IS) militants, security sources said.

The troops and allied Sunni and Shiite militias, covered by Iraqi air support, attacked Ajil oilfield area in east of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, sparking heavy clashes with the IS militants, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The troops continue their fight during the day to free the oilfield within the coming few hours of the day, the source said.

Late on Tuesday, the troops recaptured the nearby oilfield of Allas, after they drove away the extremist militants, he said, adding that both the small oilfields apparently were used to fund the extremist militants' activities.

Meanwhile, the security forces are still progressing slowly and cautiously from their positions around the towns of Dour in south of Tikrit and Alam in east of the city, because the militants planted dozens of bombs in the roads leading to the towns, while sporadic clashes and sniper shots were also behind the slow advance of the troops who sustained some casualties.

Among the casualties was Nouri Abu Mahdi, a prominent leader of a Shiite militia known as "Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq", who was killed when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle near the town of Dour, the source said.

Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, is said to be a splintered group from the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

They are part of what the U.S. and Iraqi officials earlier named Special Groups, who are allegedly funded, trained and armed by Iran's Quds Force during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and later became allied to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The Iraqi security forces began their operation before Sunday dawn via five paths; two from Mkesheifa and Sur Shnas, south of Tikrit, two others from Udheim and Tuz Khurmato, east of Tikrit, and the last from the Speicher airbase, just north of Tikrit, according to security sources.

The offensive was designed to seal off the city of Tikrit and the nearby towns of Dour and al-Alam, which are under the IS control, by seizing the main roads and villages around them.

Large parts of Salahudin province have been under IS control since June 11, a day after bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS group, which took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces. Endit