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Iraqi forces recapture new areas in push for IS-held Mosul

Xinhua, June 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Iraqi security forces on Wednesday freed new areas in Salahudin province from Islamic State (IS) militants in operations to flush out IS militants from Mosul, a provincial official and a police chief said.

The troops advanced in the northern part of Salahudin province which located in northern central Iraq and managed to drive out IS militants from Telol al-Baj village and surrounding areas in west of the IS-held town of Shirqat, some 280 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, said Ahmed al-Kraiym, head of Salahudin's provincial council.

The troops continued their advance northward to free the remaining areas from IS militants in the northern part of Salahudin province, before heading to free the militant-seized town of Qayyara, some 50 km south of Mosul in Nineveh province, al-Kraiym told Xinhua.

In addition, al-Kraiym called on the central government and international organizations to provide humanitarian aid to thousands of displaced people who left their homes in the anti-IS battles in Salahudin province.

"The basic needs of the displaced people are far beyond the potentials of the provincial government," al-Kraiym said.

He also said that two displaced people from Telol al-Baj area were killed and eight others wounded when IS militants fired mortar rounds on convoy of vehicles carrying displaced people near an intersection on the main road outside the area.

Meanwhile, the provincial police chief Brigadier General Khalil al-Ramul told Xinhua that the security forces found at least 35 bodies of IS militants left in Telol al-Baj area after the extremist militants withdrew from their positions in the area.

Separately, the provincial police forces repelled an attack of dozens of IS militants on a village in south of the town of Shirqat, leaving eight militants killed, including a suicide car bomber, Ramul said.

Also in the province, U.S.-led coalition warplanes bombarded the house of Ibrahim Eisa, an IS leader in central Shirqat, killing him, two of his sons and two women, Ramul added.

The operations in the province are part of a major offensive to free areas in south of Mosul, including the town of Qayyara, so as to surround Mosul from the south and east, before attacking major IS strongholds in Mosul to flush out IS militants from the city, 400 km north of Baghdad.

Iraq has witnessed intense violence since the IS controlled parts of its northern and western regions in June of 2014. Endit