Iraqi forces recapture Hamrin town from ISIS

Middle East, News March 3, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Iraqi forces backed by volunteer fighters have managed to recapture the northern town of Hamrin in Iraq’s Salahuddin Province.

Reports say the Iraqi forces retook control of the town, which is located northeast of Samarra city, from the ISIS terrorist group during an operation on Tuesday.

At least four ISIS militants were killed and several others wounded during the operation.

The new military achievement came as the Iraqi armed forces are engaged in fierce clashes with the ISIS terrorists near the city of Tikrit.

Iraqi troops and volunteer forces have so far recaptured four districts and a village in Salahuddin Province, very close to the capital, Tikrit. The troops have brought down an ISIS flag from a communication tower in one of the liberated areas.

Several volunteer forces as well as dozens of militants were killed or wounded in the clashes.

This is the army’s biggest offensive to retake Tikrit. The city is one of the main strongholds of the ISIS terrorists.

More than 30,000 Iraqi troops, supported by Shia and Sunni volunteers are zeroing in on the city.

Located some 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, Tikrit was overrun by the ISIS terrorists in summer 2014 along with Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul and other areas in the Arab country’s Sunni heartland. Tikrit has a strategic position as it sits on the road to Mosul.

Earlier, volunteer Iraqi Shia fighters have engaged the ISIS terrorists in the western province of Anbar, killing nearly a dozen of the militants.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights announced that ISIS extremists have executed 23 civilians, among them a woman, in the militant-held northern city of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (248 miles) north of Baghdad, on the alleged ground that they were in collaboration with Iraqi security forces.

The ISIS terrorists control parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

Earlier on Monday, the terror group released a video showing the purported execution of four Sunni tribesmen in the Tikrit region for allegedly collaborating with the Iraqi government.

DB/HJL/HMV