Iraqi Forces Take Upper-Hand over ISIL Terrorists in Salahuddin Province

“Our forces have repelled the ISIL’s attacks on Hamreen heights in Salahuddin province,” Commander of Imam Khamenei Battalion Haidar al-Hosseini al-Ardavi told FNA on Monday.

He noted that after the mop-up operations in the Northern parts of Salahuddin province over the past two months, the Iraqi government commissioned the volunteer forces to purge terrorists from Hamreen heights as far as al-Sharqat region.

“The ISIL has carried out heavy attacks against the military positions of the Iraqi volunteer forces, including Imam Khamenei Battalion and Imam Mohammad Javad Brigade, since yesterday, but the Iraqi volunteer forces have managed to kill 53 ISIL terrorists and injure scores of others,” al-Ardavi added.

In a relevant development on Sunday, the Iraqi army and volunteer forces (Hashd al-Shaabi forces) repelled the ISIL’s attacks on several villages in the Western part of Baghdad.

The ISIL militants tried to attack a number of villages in al-Abadi, al-Hayataveen and Abu Gharib regions, but they were pushed back by the government forces.

Scores of militants were killed and wounded in fierce clashes with the Iraqi forces.

Also on Thursday, the Iraqi Army units in collaboration with local forces had begun operations to clear the city of Fallujah from ISIL from three different directions.

According to FNA, the Iraqi armed forces, in collaboration with the police, Special Forces, and tribal fighters began the operation on Thursday.

So far, several ISIL members have been killed in the ongoing clashes in the Anbar province city.

Under immense pressure, the ISIL terrorist group has conditioned the exit of Iraqi citizens from Fallujah city without being harmed to paying a large sum of money.

“Each citizen of Fallujah has to pay $1,000 in extorted money to ISIL in order to be allowed to safely exit the city,” the Arabic-language al-Sumeria news website quoted an informed Iraqi source as saying last month.

He noted that paying $1,000 for the residents who have been under the ISIL siege in the central city of Fallujah is very difficult.

The ISIL had also earlier used Fallujah residents as human shields by preventing them from leaving the city.

ISIL, for its part, is launching offensives against Iraqi forces near both Ramadi and Fallujah, trying to open up multiple fronts to prevent them from surrounding Fallujah.