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22 IS militants killed in clashes, airstrike in Iraq

Xinhua, March 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

A total of 22 militants from the Islamic State (IS) extremist group were killed on Tuesday in an airstrike and two IS attacks on Iraqi forces in north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, security sources said.

In Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, the IS militants, coming through desert roads, carried out an attack on al-Dyoum area in west of the besieged city of Tikrit, the capital of Salahudin province, but were repelled by the security forces and allied Shiite and Sunni militias, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The troops foiled the IS attack which was aimed at breaking the week-long siege of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, leaving at least seven IS militants killed, the source said.

The battles to free Tikrit from IS militants have been stalled as the militants planted thousands of bombs and dozens of booby-trapped buildings and cars, but sporadic clashes continued.

Separately, the army's helicopter gunships pounded an IS convoy of eight vehicles on a desert road near the militant-seized town of Seiniyah, just west of Baiji, some 30 km north of Tikrit, destroying five vehicles carrying heavy machine guns, and leaving at least 12 militants killed, the source added.

The IS vehicles are believed to be part of reinforcement for the IS militants who have been seizing the town of Seiniyah for months, according to the source.

Some 30,000 Iraqi troops and thousands of allied Shiite and Sunni militias have been involved in two-week operation to recapture Tikrit and other key towns and villages in the northern part of Salahudin province from IS militants.

Large parts of the province have been under IS control since June 2014, after bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the group.

Near Baghdad, the security forces killed three suicide bombers before they reach a security checkpoint at the entrance of the town of Tarmiyah, some 40 km north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said in a statement.

The troops later carried out a controlled detonation to a booby-trapped car used by the attackers without casualties, Maan added.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack in Tarmiyah but the IS militant group, in most cases, is responsible for such suicide attacks in the country.

In June last year, the IS has taken control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces. Endit