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RAMADI, Iraq, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Sunday freed five villages from Islamic State (IS) militants in the country's western province of Anbar, killing at least 22 militants, a provincial security source said.
In the early morning, the troops and allied paramilitary Sunni tribal fighters carried out an operation to flash out the extremist militants from villages and rural areas along the Euphrates River in north of town of Heet, some 160 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The troops backed by Iraqi aircraft managed to free the villages of Sarrajiyah, J'iel, al-Aliya, Saffagiyah and Mahboubiyah after sporadic clashes with IS militants who fled the scene, the source said.
A total of 22 IS militants were killed in the clashes and several vehicles of the terrorist group were destroyed, including two carrying heavy machine guns, while two soldiers were killed and six others wounded, the source added.
In northern Iraq, a civilian was killed and ten others wounded, including women and children, when IS militants fired many mortar rounds on several neighborhoods of the town of Qayyara, some 55 km south of Mosul, according to Salih al-Jubouri, the mayor of Qayyara.
The town has been the scene of repeated attacks by the extremist IS militants since the Iraqi security forces freed Qayyara on Aug. 25. The strategic town is supposed to be used as a staging ground for a major offensive to liberate the last major IS stronghold in Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad.
Iraqi security forces and allied units have been battling IS militants for retaking large territories in northern and western Iraq seized by the IS since June 2014.
