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Security forces take full control of Shirqat town in Iraq's Salahudin province

Xinhua, September 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Iraqi security forces on Thursday retook full control of Shirqat, a town in Salahudin province, after pushing out Islamic State (IS) militants from the central part of the town, the Iraqi military said.

"Our forces fought a 72-hour battle (against the IS) that culminated in the full liberation the town of Shirqat and the raising of the Iraqi flags over the government headquarters," the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

"The Armed Forces are looking forward to the decisive battle in Mosul in order to teach the terrorist Daesh (IS group) a lesson," the statement said.

Earlier in the day, a provincial security source told Xinhua that security forces and allied Sunni paramilitary tribal fighters partially seized Shirqat, some 280 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

The source said that the troops entered the central part of the town, and seized the local government compound, the main hospital building, and police headquarters, but sporadic clashes continued in some small pockets in the town.

At least 33 IS militants were killed in the operation, the source said without disclosing casualties among government forces and allied fighters.

The operation to liberate the town was launched on Tuesday with heavy artillery and mortar barrage on IS positions.

The liberation of the town, the last one under IS control in Salahudin province, is part of a major offensive to liberate the IS stronghold in Mosul, the capital of Iraq's northern province of Nineveh.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, is the second largest city in Iraq. It has been under IS control for more than two years since the extremist group seized parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014. Endit