Iraqi army kills 50 ISIS jihadists in Salahadin

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region ─  Iraq’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday that 50 Islamic State militants were killed by Iraqi forces during the Tigris military operation in the eastern province of Salahadin. 

“A force belonging to Division 5 of the Iraqi army defeated a massive assault of ISIS militants on the oilfields of Allas and Ajail and gunned down 50 militants,” read the Iraq Defense Ministry statement. It added that nine vehicles belonging to the extremists were destroyed. 
 
According to an Iraqi security source, ISIS militants had recaptured the area of Albu Jaradian in the town of Baiji in Salahadin, and “they are on the offensive towards the western neighborhoods of Karaba and Naft in Baiji."

The Baiji setbacks came as Iraqi Defense Minister Khalid Obaidi arrived in the town of Zaluia in Salahadin to mark the establishment of the Zaluia-Balad bridge.

On June 30, Hadi al-Amri, the head of the Badr Organization, said the oilfields of Allas and Ajail had become a graveyard for ISIS militants, and they could not return to the provinces of Diyala and Salahadin ever again.