RAMADI, Iraq
The Iraqi army has prevented Islamic State (IS) militants capturing the Iraqi city of Ramadi, police chief major general Ahmad el-Duleymi told Anadolu Agency late Wednesday.
The IS militants started their advance last week on Ramadi, which is situated around 100 kms west of Baghdad. However, the city is now under complete control of Iraqi forces after clashes with IS militants and some affiliated armed tribesmen, said head of police of west Anbar province El-Duleymi.
Militants from the Islamic State group captured Mosul in June and then surged across northern Iraq since, taking control of several predominantly Sunni cities.
The IS has driven an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis from their homes in a humanitarian crisis that is engulfing the area since the uprising began at the beginning of June. The U.S. has conducted dozens of airstrikes on IS forces since August 7.
Meanwhile in other regions of Iraq, 38 IS militants and three Iraqi army soldiers died in clashes in northern Mosul, western Anbar provinces and eastern Diyala provinces during clashes on Wednesday.
During the conflicts at Anbar's Hadisa town, 17 militants were killed and explosives and ammunitions belonging to the IS were destroyed according to police sources.
At Zamar town of Mosul, 10 militants were killed, while in Baqubah 11 militants and two soldiers died, and three soldiers were injured.
The self-styled Islamic State has declared a 'caliphate' in the territories it has captured in Iraq and Syria, and seeks to expand it by lifting national boundaries in the Middle East drawn by European nations in the wake of World War I.
The group still continuing to hold 690 Ezidi and Shia women, while killing some 420 more Ezidis, Iraq’s human rights minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a press meeting.
Mount Sinjar, in northwest Iraq near the border with Syria, has been home to thousands of Ezidis who have fled in fear of being massacred by Islamic State militants, who consider them "devil-worshippers." The IS holds 75 Shia woman in Sinjar town, and 15 young girls in central Babil city's el-Buhayrat region.
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