Thirteen Turkmen fighters killed, injured in confrontations with IS in Salahuddin

Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Three Turkmen fighters were killed, while ten others were wounded in confrontations with Islamic State militants, east of Salahuddin province, an official said on Thursday.

“Troops of the Turkmen mobilization forces noticed some militants in al-Khulkhal village, located between Tuz Khurmatu and Daquq towns. The troops then headed toward the region, before being followed by joint troops of army and the mobilization troops, backed by military jets,” Abu Reda al-Najjar, supervisor of the Turkmen troops, told AlSumaria News. “The confrontations took place in south of Kirkuk.”

The clashes, according to Najjar, “left five members killed and ten others injured.”

On Wednesday, Ali al-Husseini, the official spokesperson of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), said troops clashed with group of armed gunmen in Tuz Khurmatu.

Joint troops had managed to free several residential areas in Anbar, Salahuddin, Diyala and Kirkuk from Islamic State, which urged the militants to escape toward Al-Jazeera regions in those provinces.

Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

114 Iraqi civilians were killed, while 244 others were wounded as result of terrorism, violence and armed conflicts, according to a monthly release by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), issued on Wednesday.

A government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition has been fighting, since October 2016, the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul.