Iraqi fighters kill tens of ISIL militants

Iraqi volunteer fighters have engaged members of the ISIL Takfiri militant group in the violence-wracked northern province of Salahuddin, and inflicted heavy losses on the extremists.

A local security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Popular Mobilization Units killed tens of ISIL militants during fierce clashes west of the city of Samarra, located 125 kilometers (78 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, on Saturday, Iraq’s al-Sumaria satellite TV network reported.

The source added that the fighters also destroyed a number of vehicles that ISIL had planned to use as car bombs against security forces in the area.

Meanwhile, ISIL Takfiris have executed five more Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Hammam al-Alil area, located some 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) south of the militant-held city of Mosul.

ISIL released a video on March 19, showing the purported beheading of three Peshmerga soldiers identified as Rezkar Mohammad Saleh, Pishtiwan Osman Rasul, and Hisham Nabil Khorshid.

A still from a video posted by the ISIL on March 19, 2015, showing the purported beheading of Rezkar Mohammad Saleh, a member of Peshmera forces, by the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.

The three victims are dressed in orange outfits, and are beheaded in three different locations with masked knife-wielding Takfiri militants speaking Kurdish.

Kurdish forces are fighting the Takfiri group in several areas across Iraq and Syria and have inflicted heavy losses on them.

In February, the Takfiri terrorists released a video that showed 21 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in cages being paraded through streets in the Iraqi province of Kirkuk.

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters gather during an operation to retake Khubbaz oil field, near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, from ISIL extremists on January 31, 2015. (© AFP)

The nine-minute footage showed the orange jumpsuit-clad prisoners being interviewed by an ISIL militant holding a microphone with the group’s insignia, before being seemingly taken to a location to be killed.

The prisoners were driven one by one on the back of pick-up trucks with ISIL militants accompanying each prisoner.

ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed militants took control of the country’s northern city of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in driving the ISIL terrorists out of some areas in Iraq.