Iraqi security forces kill 63 IS militants near Mosul

Sixty-three Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Thursday as Iraqi security forces repelled a major IS attack near the IS-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq, a military spokesman said.

The IS attack began at dawn when dozens of IS militants advanced from several directions toward the positions of the security forces and allied paramilitary Sunni tribal units in villages west of Makhmour, a town some 50 km southeast of Mosul, Brig. Gen. Firas Sabri, spokesman of Liberation of Nineveh Operations Command, told Xinhua.

The troops, backed by U.S.-led coalition aircraft and artillery, managed to repel the attack, killing 63 IS militants, including several would-be suicide bombers wearing explosive vests, and destroyed four suicide car bombs, Sabri said.

"The bodies of Daaish (IS) group members scattered in the valleys and in front of the positions of our forces," Sabri said, adding that two soldiers were wounded in the clashes.

Thursday's IS attack near Mosul came as the extremist militant group carried out two more attacks, which involved five suicide bombers, on security forces in Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib and in Albu Eitha area, just north of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western province of Anbar.

Both attacks were repelled by government troops.

On March 24, Iraqi forces and Kurdish security forces known as Peshmerga launched the first phase of a major offensive and recaptured several IS-held villages south of Mosul, as part of preparations to flush out IS militants from Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province.

According to Iraqi officials, the operations to free Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and other IS-held parts of Nineveh province will be carried out by the Iraqi army, Peshmerga, and U.S.-led coalition, with participation of paramilitary units from local volunteers, including Sunni Arab tribesmen. Endit