Iraq continues fight with IS; 15 kidnapped by militants

Iraqi security forces continued it fight on Monday against Islamic State (IS) militants in the provinces of Salahudin and Anbar, while militants kidnapped 15 people in the volatile province of Diyala, security sources said.

In Salahudin province, Iraqi security forces fought back IS militants in the country's largest oil refinery of Baiji, some 200 km north of the capital of Baghdad, and managed to gain ground inside the refinery, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The battles inside the refinery came days after IS militants seized large parts of the more than 20 square km refinery and laid siege to troops inside, the source said.

On Tuesday, Iraq dispatched reinforcement troops, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, to an airbase just north of Tikrit, in an offensive aimed at retaking full control of the oil refinery.

Also in Salahudin, security forces and allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, cleared in the morning part of the mountainous area of Himreen in the eastern part of the province after an operation that started late Sunday, the source said.

The troops killed a number of IS militants and destroyed many of their vehicles and weapons caches, the source added.

In Anbar province, security forces repelled two attacks by IS militants north and south of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Fighting in Ramadi has been going on for sometime between IS militants, who earlier seized much of the northern, eastern and central parts of the city, and security forces trying to regain control.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, unidentified militiamen in several vehicles kidnapped 15 people from several districts of the town of Baladruz, east of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial security source said.

Also on Monday, police found the bodies of a man and his son who were kidnapped late Sunday by militiamen near the predominantly Sunni town of Maqdadiyah, about 30 km northeast of Baquba, the source said.

The bodies had bullet wounds and signs of torture.

Police also found the bodies of six other unidentified males, all handcuffed and with bullet wounds, at an orchard south of Maqdadiyah, the source said.

Violence and sectarian tension have been running high recently between Sunni and Shiite communities in the volatile province of Diyala, with frequent reprisal killings.

Across Iraq, the security situation has drastically deteriorated since last June, when bloody clashes broke out between security forces and IS militants. Endit