SALADIN, Iraq
Some 53 people have died, and 80 more have been injured in Monday clashes between the Iraqi army and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Iraq.
Fighting erupted in the towns of Dujali, Sejar and Saklaviya from the central Fallujah to the more eastern Diyala area, leaving 50 ISIL militants and three Iraqi soldiers dead, Iraqi military sources told an Anadolu Agency correspondent.
Another four soldiers, among the 80 injured in total, were also wounded.
Meanwhile, ISIL members held 35 Iraqi soldiers hostage in the town of Saklaviya near Fallujah, still according to Iraqi sources.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, which already controls parts of Syria, has extended its reach into Iraq since June 10, when it seized Iraq's second-largest city Mosul. Violence conducted by ISIL claimed more than 1,400 lives in Iraq, and caused 1.2 million Iraqis, including Turkmen, Arabs, Christians and Ezidis, to flee their homes.
www.aa.com.tr/en
