Iraqi forces continue offensive against militants

Iraqi forces have continued their offensive against militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) by pounding their gathering sites in Salahuddin and Nineveh provinces.

Witnesses said on Thursday that the Iraqi Air Force launched four air strikes on the militants occupying the palaces of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in Tikrit, the provincial capital of Salahuddin Province.

The Iraqi forces also engaged in fierce clashes with ISIL militants in the northern villages of the city, killing a number of them.

The army also hit the al-Ghazlani military camp that had been turned into a hideout for the militants in the northern city of Mosul, the Nineveh provincial capital.

Meanwhile, the ISIL confirmed the death of its second man in command, Adnan Ismail al-Bailawi, who was reportedly killed along other insurgents during a battle east of Mosul last week.

Also, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces said they are now in control of the northern city of Kirkuk.

“The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of Peshmerga,” said Peshmerga spokesman, Jabbar Yawar.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday that the situation in the country’s northern cities of Mosul and Tikrit had “stared to be reversed,” stressing that the al-Qaeda-linked militants are now “on the run.”

On June 10, Nineveh Province fell into the hands of the militants. The Takfiri attacks have reportedly forced more than half a million people in and around Mosul to flee their homes.

Clashes continue between Iraqi soldiers and the Takfiri militants, who have vowed to march toward the capital, Baghdad.