Iraqi forces have hit back against militants in eastern Iraqi province Diyala in the last 48 hours, killing 70 fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as ISIL, officials said.
Diyala police spokesperson Ghalib Attiya told Anadolu Agency that “nine armed men were killed during the attack on a police station in the neighborhood of Al-Mafraq," which is only 6 kilometers west of provincial capital Baqubah.
An Iraqi air forces raid near Muqdadiyah city killed another seven ISIL militants, according to commander of Tigris Operations, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir al-Zaidi. He added that another 12 ISIL militants were killed in the Al Adhim region, 60 kilometers north of Baqubah.
"A total of 70 ISIL militants have been killed in clashes with Iraqi forces in the last 48 hours in different regions in Diyala province," announced the head of the security committee in Diyala, Sadeq Hussaini, on Monday evening.
Near Ramadi city in the western Anbar province, five ISIL militants were killed in clashes with Iraqi forces on Tuesday, reported a security source.
Meanwhile, ISIL militants seized the Turkmen Shia-majority Al Bashir village in northern Iraq's Kirkuk province after clashes with Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Tuesday.
ISIL militants have also captured towns and villages in Diyala and the Saqlawiyah and Al Sejer regions north of Fallujah, after fierce fighting with the Iraqi army.
The rebels seized large swathes of western Iraq’s Anbar province in January including parts of Fallujah and Ramadi, flashpoints in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
ISIL, which already has control of parts of Syria, has extended its reach into Iraq since June 10, when it seized Iraq's second-largest city Mosul and soon afterwards took near-complete control of the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit.
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