Iraqi Army Retakes Saddam Hussein’s Home Village from ISIL

The Iraqi army drove terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) out of late dictator Saddam Hussein’s home village, state media and police said, part of a campaign to retake wide areas of Northern and Western Iraq overrun by the rebels.
The Al-Qaeda splinter group leading the insurgency has declared a medieval-style caliphate erasing the borders of Iraq and Syria, and threatened to march on the Iraqi capital Baghdad to topple the central government, Reuters reported.

Pursuing a counter-offensive, government forces along with volunteer forces backed by helicopter gunships recaptured the village of Awja on Thursday night, according to state media, police and local inhabitants.

State television quoted the prime minister’s military spokesman, Qassim Atta, as saying that Awja had been “totally cleansed” and 30 militants had been killed.