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IRAQ-IS-ATTACK
Policeman killed, 6 civilians kidnapped in IS attacks in Iraq’s Salahudin
TIKRIT, Iraq, June 25, 2018 (BSS/Xinhua) – A policeman was killed and six
security members wounded after the extremist Islamic State (IS) group
kidnapped six civilians from a village in Iraq’s central province of
Salahudin, a provincial security source said Monday.
Before Sunday midnight, IS militants in two vehicles broke into the houses
of a village near the town of Dour, some 150 km north of Iraq’s capital
Baghdad, and kidnapped six civilians before they apparently moved to the IS
hotbed of Mteibijah, a rugged area in the eastern part of the province, Lt.
Col. Mahmoud Jasim from Salahudin Operations Command told Xinhua.
After midnight, IS militants attacked outposts of police and paramilitary
Sunni tribal fighters at the edges of Mteibijah area, sparking heavy clashes
that only ended after interference of two helicopter gunships, Jasim said.
The clashes resulted in the killing of a policeman and the wounding of six
security members, while there are no immediate reports about casualties among
the attackers, Jasim added.
The Iraqi security forces repeatedly tried to retake control of Mteibijah,
but the vast rugged land and mountains have made it difficult for them to
dislodge the extremist militants from the region.
Hundreds of IS militants earlier fled their former bases in the key cities
of Salahudin, including the provincial capital Tikrit, some 170 km north of
Baghdad, after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas during major anti-IS
offensives.
Late in 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also the commander-in-
chief of Iraqi forces, officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS
militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the
extremist group.
However, some IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or fled to
deserts and rugged areas in the country, carrying out attacks from time to
time against security forces and civilians.
BSS/XINHUA/FI/ 1616 hrs