Clashes between Iraqi Army and ISIL, Kill 45 Militants in Salahuddin
KABUL: (Middle East Press) At least 45 militants have been killed after clashes erupted between the Iraqi army and ISIL Takfiri militants in northern Salahuddin province.
According to a Monday statement by Iraqi Interior Ministry, the militants were killed in an airstrike by the Iraqi army’s air force in the northern districts of Salahuddin.
“The airstrike resulted in killing 45 ISIL fighters in the district of al-Sharqat and the areas of Makfoul, al-Mallaha, and al-Ba’aji in the district of Baiji,” the statement further said, according to online newspaper Iraqi News.
The development comes as the Takfiri militants keep attacking the district of al-Dajil and the Baiji’s oil refinery.
“Baiji’s refinery and the district of al-Dajil are constantly under fierce ISIL attacks,” Khaled al-Khazraji, the deputy president of the security committee in Salahuddin Provincial Council, told Iraqi News.
He further noted that al-Jazirah is the area from which the ISIL attacks are launched.
Salahuddin’s top commander, Abdel-Wahab al-Saadi, said on April 18 that the Iraqi army had managed to secure the areas surrounding the refinery and enter the site following heavy clashes with the ISIL terrorists.
Iraq’s biggest oil refinery, which once produced some 300,000 barrels of refined petroleum products per day, had been besieged for days by ISIL terrorists who had also managed to take over a small part of the site’s complex.
