Security forces fight IS in Iraq, as defense minister escapes mortar attack near Mosul

Iraqi security forces on Monday clashed with the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, while the Iraqi defense minister escaped unharmed a mortar and gunfire attack by the extremist militants on his convoy near the city of Mosul, a security source and the defense minister office said.

During the day, the IS militants in the militant-seized town of Qayyara, some 50 km south of Mosul, fired mortar rounds and opened fire from machine guns on the convoy of the Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi while traveling on a nearby road leading to Nineveh Liberation Operations Command in Makhmour military base in southeast of Mosul, Obeidi's office said in a statement posted on the minister's official page of Facebook.

Obeidi's guards engaged in heavy fighting with the IS militants before they continue traveling to the Operations Command, which is tasked with liberating Iraq's last major IS stronghold in Mosul, the statement said.

Obeidi arrived at Makhmour base and held a meeting with military commanders to discuss the troops' advance to liberate Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, according to the statement.

Last month, security forces freed several villages close to the town of Qayyara after recapturing a strategic airbase, considered a significant victory, as the airbase is crucial for both the troops and aircrafts in their attacks against the IS as they free the northern city of Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

The troops' advance into Qayyara is part of a major offensive operation aiming to free areas in southern Mosul, including Qayyara, and to surround Mosul from the south and east before advancing into the city and flushing the IS militants out of it.

In Iraq's western province of Anbar, the security forces and allied paramilitary units of Sunni tribes repelled an IS attack on the newly-freed al-Walid crossing point on the border with Syria, leaving at least five extremist militants killed, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Six days ago, the troops backed by the U.S.-led coalition aircraft launched an operation and freed al-Walid crossing point and surrounding desert area near the border with Syria and raised the Iraqi flag on the government buildings.

Also in the province, an IS sniper shot dead Major Abdul Amir al-Zirgani, leader of rapid reaction regiment, in Jazirat al-Khaldiyah area in northwest of the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, the source said.

Government troops and allied militias have been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns from the IS militants in the province of Anbar, including Ramadi and Fallujah, as militants attempted to approach Baghdad after seizing most of the province.

Iraq has witnessed worsening violence since the IS took control of parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence and the rise of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the U.S. that invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003, under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country.

The war led to the ouster and eventual execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, but no such weapons have been found. Endit