ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — ISIS militants launched a string of surprise attacks on three areas in the Salahaddin province of north-central Iraq on Thursday, said local officials. At least 12 ISIS fighters have been killed in the clashes.
Khalid Daraji, member of the Salahadin Provincial Council told Rudaw that ISIS militants used three car bombs to attack the villages of Mazraa and Abu Taama in southern Baiji district.
Baiji, home to Iraq's biggest refinery, is approximately 75 kilometers south of the Kurdish Peshmerga front at Makhmour and about 30 kilometers from ISIS-held Hawija.
Daraji added that the attack targeted security forces and their families, but locals stopped them and clashed erupted, resulting in the deaths of eight militants.
He said three security members and four civilians were also wounded in the confrontation.
As he explained, the situation was completely brought under control after the attack was repulsed.
The Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary forces issued a statement saying they had repelled another attack today in the area of Hararyat in northeastern Baiji.
“The Brigade 42 of the Hashd al-Shaabi repelled the assault of the ISIS militants in the Hararyat area of Baiji town,” read the statement, claiming to have gunned down four ISIS suicide bombers.
On Tuesday 35 kilometers south of Baiji in Tikrit, five ISIS suicide bombers unleashed multiple suicide attacks which killed at least 22 people, the Associated Press reported citing a provincial official.
Despite the recapturing of 62 percent of the territory across Iraq which ISIS once held, the extremist group has managed to regularly launch attacks in some Iraqi cities. A series of large-scale bombings claimed by ISIS have struck Baghdad.
Iraqi, Kurdish, and US officials have repeatedly warned that after Mosul, ISIS will likely return to its insurgent roots as it loses more territory in both Iraq and neighboring Syria.
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