Iraqi forces repel IS attacks in Iraq's Salahudin province

Iraqi security forces repelled attacks by Islamic State (IS) militants on villages and security forces in Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, a provincial security source said on Thursday.

Three suicide bombers late on Wednesday night stormed Albu Tu'ma village, some 20 km north of the provincial capital city of Tikrit. One of them blew up his explosive vest at a house, leaving a child killed and three family members wounded, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

After the blast, the householder shot dead another suicide bomber with his rifle, while the third was shot dead by the villagers, the source said.

Meanwhile, another IS attack was foiled when local security members and villagers opened fire on four suicide bombers as they tried to storm al-Mazra'a village, south of the town of Baiji, some 200 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said.

The security members and villagers forced the four suicide bombers to a building at the edge of the village, where the troops and villagers managed to shoot the attackers dead before being able to detonate their explosive belts, the source added.

In the morning, the security forces and villagers across the province are in highest alert to repel any more possible IS attacks, as intelligence reports said that six more suicide bombers could be hiding somewhere in the villages in north of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, according to the source.

The predominately Sunni Arab province of Salahudin has been the scene of a major offensive by Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units, which managed to retake control of the province from the hands of IS militants who seized large part of it in June 2014.

The attacks came as the Iraqi security forces backed by anti-IS international coalition are carrying out a major offensive to drive out the IS militants from their major stronghold in the western side of Mosul in northern Iraq. Endit