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At least 59 killed in air strikes, clashes in Iraq

24 September 2014 18:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least 59 people were killed in separate air strikes and clashes with the Islamic State militants across Iraq on Wednesday, while the militants blew two archeological and religious sites in Salahudin province, security sources said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite militias recaptured two villages of Nowfel and Bablan in north of the city of Maqdadiyah, 100 km northeast of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, after fierce clashes with militant groups, including those affiliated to the Islamic State group, an al-Qaida offshoot , Lieutenant General Jamil al-Shimary, the provincial police chief, told Xinhua.

The troops and the allied militiamen killed at least 15 of the extremist militants and destroyed four of their vehicles, al- Shimary said, adding that the troops are advancing slowly to free more villages in the rural areas north of Maqdadiyah, including the small dam of Sudour, as the militants planted dozens of roadside bombs in all the roads and orchards.

In addition, the Islamic State militants withdrew from four villages near the town of Qara Tabba, some 175 km northeast of Baghdad, due to continuing clashes with the the Kurdish security forces, known as Peshmerga, and increasing air strikes during the past few days, a provincial security source anonymously told Xinhua.

The insurgent militants resorted to nearby Himreen mountainous area to get rid of the Kurdish attacks and reorganize their militants, the source said.

In Anbar province, dozens of Islamic State militants carried out an attack in the morning on the southern districts under control of security forces in the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, but the troops and allied tribesmen repelled the attack after heavy clashes, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The clashes in Ramadi resulted in the killing of 11 Islamic State militants, two policemen and a tribesman, the source said.

Also in the day, up to 30 Islamic State militants were killed and five of their vehicles, carrying heavy machine guns, were destroyed by U.S. and Iraqi air strikes on the extremist group positions in the towns of Saqlawiyah, Garma and Sicher area near the militant seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, the source added.

In Salahudin province, the Islamic State militants destroyed one of Iraq's most important archeological sites when they blew up the Green Church in central the provincial capital city of Tikrit, about 170 km north of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

The ancient site used to be the biggest church in Tikrit, which was the capital of the East for Christianity. The Romans, who embraced Christianity, tried to make use of its location as a deterrent remote outpost of the Roman Empire against the Persians. However, the Islamic conquest put an end to the Roman control over the city in 637 AD.

The extremist militants also bombed the ancient Muslim shrine of 40 in Tikrit, which believed it includes the tombs of the 40 Muslim leaders who took control of the city during the Islamic conquest in the 7th century.

The security situation began to drastically deteriorate in Iraq since June 10 when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of Islamic State militants, who took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after the Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.