Iraqi troops backed by Shia militiamen and Kurdish security forces recaptured two towns seized previously by militants in an eastern province, said Iraqi officials on Monday.
This is a new victory for Iraqi security forces in their attempt to regain areas lost to the militants. Police officials in the Diyala province said that Iraqi forces entered the towns of Saadiya and Jalula late Sunday after fierce clashes with fighters from the Islamic State group.
The fight is still continuing with some pockets of resistance outside the two towns, said the police officials.
Teams defusing unexploded ordnance are working to defuse roadside bombs planted in the streets by the militants before their withdrawal. Some families that fled the area have already started to come back to their homes in the two towns. Kurdish security forces, known also as peshmerga took part in the fight against the IS group in both towns.
Diyala province is ethnically mixed between Arabs and Kurds, and Jalula has a large Kurdish community. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Islamic militants seized the towns of Jalula, 125 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Baghdad, and Saadiya, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital in August after a stunning summer blitz which enabled the Islamic State group to take over large swaths of land in the country’s north and west.
Recently, Iraqi forces recaptured the strategic oil town of Baiji on Friday in a significant victory over the Islamic State (IS) group. Baiji is the largest town to be retaken by government troops since IS-led militants overran much of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland in June in their bid to create a “caliphate”.