47 killed in clashes with IS militants in Iraq

At least 47 people were killed on Thursday in separate clashes between the Islamic State (IS) militants and Iraqi security forces in the provinces of Salahudin and Anbar, security sources said.

In Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, the security forces backed by Sunni and Shia militias, known as Hashd Shaabi (Popular Mobilization), freed the areas of Jazira, Saiyd Gharib and Rumailat in the western part of the province and the adjacent northern part of the neighbouring Anbar province from the IS militants, a provincial security source told Xinhua news agency.

The sporadic battles resulted in the killing of 13 militants while dozens of others were injured, the source without giving further details about the casualties among the security forces.

However, another source from Samarra Operations Command, told Xinhua that up to 10 security personnel and allied militiamen were killed and 23 others wounded in the operations in Salahudin province during the past 24 hours.

Also in the province, heavy clashes continued between federal police brigades and the IS militants at the partially IS-seized Baiji oil refinery, which is located some 200 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, leaving six IS militants dead and destroying two of their vehicles, a provincial security source said.

Since March 2, some 30,000 Iraqi troops and thousands of allied Shia and Sunni militias have been involved in Iraq's biggest offensive to recapture the northern part of Salahudin province, including Tikrit and other key towns and villages, from IS militants.

In Anbar province, the IS militants pounded al-Taash area which was recaptured the day before by the Iraqi forces south of the IS-held provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, leaving 15 Hashd Shaabi militiamen killed and eight others wounded, a provincial security source said.

Meanwhile, snipers of the security forces shot dead three IS militants near the defence line at the village of Huseibah al-Sharqiyah east of Ramadi, the source said.

In addition, the troops and allied militias continued during the day their advance toward Ramadi with the aim of cutting the IS supply routes and to impose a siege on the city before they carry out their major attack to free the city from the IS militants, the source added.

The clashes came two days after the Iraqi security forces and allied militias commenced a military offensive aimed at driving out the IS militants from Ramadi, which the extremist militants took full control of on May 17 after the Iraqi security forces withdrew from their positions.

The rapid retreat of the security forces and the fall of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest province, was seen as a setback to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's efforts to defeat the IS group in Anbar province and then to free the IS-held city of Mosul in the north.

The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since June last year, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and IS militants.