Iraq to launch major offensive against ISIL terrorists

Iraqi armed forces are preparing to stage a massive offensive in the coming hours to push militants out of the cities of Tikrit and Mosul.

According to the governor of Salahuddin Province, over 50,000 troops and volunteers are on standby around Samarra.

The operation against militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and their Baathist partners will begin from several fronts.

Iraqi army is also locked in a standoff with the Takfiri militants in and around Baiji refinery complex, north of Baghdad.

The security forces who are in charge of protecting the oil facility say they believe the militants are regrouping to launch a new attack.

The two sides were in control of different parts of the refinery late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, senior ISIL commander, Saudi national Abu Khabib al-Jazaeeri, was killed during clashes in Baiji on Thursday.

In a separate development on Friday, more gruesome videos were released showing atrocities of members of the ISIL terror group in Iraq. A new online video purportedly shows militants with a Saudi accent capture Iraqi border police guards, and take them to be executed.

The video then shows the militants handing the nine border guards over to another terrorist group. They are then executed in cold blood. It is not clear where the video has been shot and Press TV cannot independently confirm its authenticity.

Over the past days, Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the terrorists, who have threatened to take their acts of violence to other Iraqi cities, including the capital, Baghdad.

However, their advance has been slowed down as Iraqi military forces and volunteer fighters have begun engaging them on several fronts, pushing the militants out of several areas they had earlier overrun.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has repeatedly said that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some other Persian Gulf Arab states are supporting the militancy in Iraq.