Army liberates two villages in Salahuddin

Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Army forces liberated two villages east of the Tigris River at Salahuddin province from Islamic State militants on Tuesday, military media said.

The Salahuddin Operations troops liberated on Tuesday the villages of Shayyal al-Abli and Shayyal al-Imam in Sharqat, the War Media Cell reported, adding that the troops raised the Iraqi flags in the region.

Iraqi government forces, backed by tribal militias, are in daily operations to liberate regions occupied by the Islamic Stat militants since 2014, when the group proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in the country.

Earlier in the same day, the Salahuddin Operations media officer, Mohamed al-Assadi, said the forces recaptured the village of Kan’ous, at the same region. He revealed that the forces will move forward to the southwards to liberate the whole of the eastern region of Sharqat.

The Tuesday operations in Salahuddin come one day after an ISIS attack on a checkpoint in Samarra left five police officers dead and prompted a curfew in the area.

The greater focus is currently on the city of Mosul, Nineveh, where Iraqi government and paramilitary forces, backed by US-international coalition aircrafts, continue a major campaign launched in October to retake the city from ISIS who previously referred to it as the capital of their ‘Islamic Caliphate”.