Seven Islamic State members killed in army airstrike in Salahuddin
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Seven Islamic State members were killed in an airstrike carried out by the Iraqi army in Salahuddin province, DPA reported.
In remarks on Wednesday, Col. Mohamed Khalil al-Bazi, from Salahuddin Operations Command, said “the shelling took place on Wednesday in al-Shai region in Mutaibija, east of Samarra, leaving seven fighters killed and two motorbikes destroyed.”
The shelling, according to the source, “targeted two rest houses and tunnels that were discovered through drones.”
The dormant cells in Mutaibija, “changed its style and reduced number of its militants to avoid airstrikes,” it added.
Paramilitary personnel killed, injured in Islamic State attack, east of Salahuddin
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) The pro-government paramilitary troops have foiled an Islamic State attack, in the southern Asdira village in Shirqat town, east of Salahuddin province.
In a statement on Wednesday, the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said “a suicide bomber, attacked, late on Tuesday, a checkpoint of al-hashd al-shaabi, before the fighters repulsed the attack and prevented the militants from targeting civilians.”
The attack, according to the statement, “left many PMF personnel killed and injured.”
The troops “started, after the attack, operations in search for hiding militants,” the statement added. “The situation is currently under control in the village and areas in its vicinity.”
On Tuesday, news reports quoted sources as saying that around 26 people were killed and injured in the same village in two bomb blasts, one of them targeted PMFs.
Suicide attack kills six Sunni fighters in northern Iraq: Police
[AlAhram] A suicide attack on a former Iraqi lawmaker's house killed at least six tribal militiamen and wounded seven others in a northern Sunni Muslim village early on Wednesday, police said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Islamic State militants operate in the area.
A militant wearing a suicide vest blew himself up just after midnight at Adnan al-Ganam's house in the village of Asdira, Colonel Khalil al-Sahn, the police chief of surrounding Shirqat district, told Reuters.
Those killed were members of the Tribal Mobilisation Forces, a network of Sunni militias that back the government in its fight against Islamic State, he said.
The village is north of Tikrit, the capital of Iraq's Salahuddin province.
Islamic State, which had seized control of much of northern Iraq in 2014, lost Shirqat to U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces supported by Sunni tribal fighters in 2016.