IRAQ: Iraqi army retakes control of district near Baghdad from insurgents

Record ID: 376367

  • Title: IRAQ: Iraqi army retakes control of district near Baghdad from insurgents
  • Date: 19th July 2014
  • Summary: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3 AL-HAROUNIYA, NORTHEAST OF BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JULY 19, 2014) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) STREET COVERED BY SMOKE / LARGE PICTURE SHOWING RADICAL SHI'ITE CLERIC MOQTADA AL-SADR AND HIS FATHER IN STREET / SOLDIERS AND CARS IN STREET ARMY AND POLICE IN STREET COVERED BY BLACK SMOKE ARMY VEHICLES AND PERSONNEL CARRIERS AND SO
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2L13WWGWLFJOMFCQUAQZWP11M
  • Story Text: An Iraqi military spokesman said on Saturday (July 19) that Iraqi forces had succeeded in wrestling back a district northeast of the capital Baghdad from Islamic militants, after heavy fighting that lasted more than 14 hours.
    Major-General Qassim Atta told a military briefing in Baghdad that Iraqi troops of the Iraqi Army's Fifth Division, backed by SWAT and Iraq's elite troops, managed to dislodge militants of the Islamic State from the Al-Harouniya district, northeast of Muqdadiya town, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of the capital.
    Television footage showed black smoke still billowing from burning cars and houses, as Iraqi army, some on foot, conducted patrols of the streets of the district.
    "Security forces have managed to completely clear Al-Harouniya district and the area is now under the control of the security forces which have carried out a number of attacks over the past 48 hours and managed to clear the area, killing at least 59 terrorists and destroying five different vehicles," Atta told a military briefing in the Iraqi capital.
    The patchwork of Sunni insurgents led by Islamic State, which swept across northern Iraq last month, advanced to within 70 km (45 miles) of Baghdad.
    The Iraqi army and allied Shi'ite militia have been trying since then to regain the territory.
    Militants fought off an army offensive to retake the northern city of Tikrit on Tuesday (July 15).
    The army was forced to pull back south of the city on the banks of the Tigris.
    Intense fighting has raged for days northwest of Tikrit around a military base known as Camp Speicher, once one of the main U.S. headquarters.
    Islamic State wrote on an affiliated Twitter feed on Thursday (July 17) it had shot down two helicopters during a battle around the base.
    Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's military spokesman that government forces were fully in control of the base.
    Meanwhile, a child was killed in an Iraqi air strike on Saturday in a town in the northern province of Salahuddin, residents and hospital staff said.
    At least 15 civilians, mostly children, were also wounded when Iraqi planes struck targets in Sulaiman Pek, a town in northern Iraq overrun by Islamic militants.
    Residents of the town said that planes struck a residential area.
    Military sources could not be immediately reached for comment.
    "We were gathering at a grocery store when a plane hovered above. We ran to the other side of the street for shelter, but the plane started to bomb the houses, people and children. Some of the people were killed while others were wounded. There are no gunmen, no nothing in the area," said a wounded man in a hospital in the nearby town of Tuz Khurmato where he was taken for treatment
    Government forces are battling insurgents led by the Islamic State in the area.
    Tuz Khurmato is 55 miles (88.5 kilometres) south of the city of Kirkuk, seized by the Kurdish Peshmerga last month.
    The rapid seizure of large parts of northern and western Iraq by insurgents led by the Islamic State, and the Kurds' takeover of oil-rich Kirkuk have raised concerns internationally about the split of the country, as government forces have abandoned their posts.
    The Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north, have taken advantage of the chaos to expand their territory beyond the formal boundary of their enclave.
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