Islamic State (IS) militants have begun transporting dozens of their Iraqi prisoners from Iraq to Syria, fearing that an attack by Iraqi troops on its northern stronghold of Mosul may be imminent, an Iraqi official said Wednesday even as the Sunni radical group lost 43 of its members in clashes with Peshmerga Kurdish troops near the strategic Mosul Dam.
The chairman of the security commission of Nineveh's provincial council, Mohamed Ibrahim al-Bayati, told Efe news agency that the prisoners were being removed from prisons in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, to the Syrian province of Al-Raqaa.
The IS fears an imminent attack on Mosul, and it may also want to use these prisoners, all of whom are Iraqi nationals, as hostages to put pressure on the Iraqi government, Al-Bayati said.
Most of the prisoners are senior officers affiliated with one of the Iraqi security services who were captured when Mosul fell to IS June 10 and were branded by the conquerors as violators of Islamic law.
The transfer began a few days ago, Al-Bayati explained, and noted that many families in Mosul never received word as to the whereabouts or the fate of their relatives kidnapped by the jihadi group.
IS released thousands of prisoners from the prisons of Badush, Tasfirat and Mosul, as soon as it had taken control of each city.
Al-Raqaa is the main IS stronghold in Syria, making it a prime target for both government forces and the US-led international coalition. IS proclaimed a caliphate in late June spanning parts of Syria and Iraq.
Meanwhile, at least 43 IS militants were killed in clashes with Peshmerga Kurdish troops near the strategic Mosul Dam, a Kurdish leader said Wednesday.
The leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Gayaz al-Surji, told Efe that a force of more than 500 IS fighters equipped with armoured vehicles and heavy weapons attacked Peshmerga troops in the towns of Sahrish, Eluan and Kerfer and near the Berkam Jazeera.
Al-Surji indicated that the US-led international coalition carried out airstrikes against IS jihadis who tried to take control of those areas in the Zemar district in a bid to regain control of the nearby dam.
The international coalition reported Tuesday that its aircraft launched more than 14 airstrikes on targets near the dam and on the city of Tel Afar, west of Mosul.
Al-Surji described the clashes as some of the bloodiest to date between Kurdish troops and IS jihadis.
Eleven Kurdish soldiers were wounded in the fighting, he said, and added that some of the wounded soldiers were hospitalised in serious condition in the Iraqi Kurdish province of Dohuk.
The Peshmerga forces regained control of the dam Aug 16 after it had been in jihadis' hands for 20 days.
Mosul Dam, Iraq's largest and the fourth largest in the Middle East, is located on the northern side of the Tigris river.
In a separate development, Iraqi security forces Wednesday broke the IS's months-long siege of a town in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, provincial and security sources said.
Security forces, backed by Shia militias and Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, carried out an offensive against the IS militants in the rural area around the town of Qara-Tabba, about 140 km northeast of Iraq's capital Baghdad, Rahim Aziz al-Kabchi, mayor of the town, told Xinhua news agency.
The troops freed 27 villages around the besieged town of Qara-Tabba from IS militants after an offensive carried out early morning from three directions, al-Kabchi said.
"Qara-Tabba and surrounding areas are now 100 percent free after the troops killed at least 14 IS militants today," he said.
Earlier in the day, Jamil al-Shimary, the provincial police chief, told Xinhua that Iraqi forces clashed with IS militants in the rural area near Himreen Lake, which is located between Qara-Tabba and the nearby town of Jalawlaa.
The army managed to free several villages south of Qara-Tabba, leaving at least nine IS militants dead, including two suicide bombers, and destroyed four vehicles carrying heavy machine guns, Shimary said.
The operation was designed to break the siege on Qara-Tabba after clearing the rural area around the town from the IS militants who fled the battles in the nearby towns of Jalawlaa and Saadiyah during the past few days.
The offensive near Qara-Tabba came one day after security forces and the Peshmerga fighters recaptured the towns of Saadiyah, some 120 km northeast of Baghdad, and the nearby Jalawlaa after heavy clashes with IS militants.
Also in the day, fierce clashes erupted between security forces and IS militants north of the town of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, killing seven militants, including a suicide bomber, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
