6 Iraqi Policemen Killed as ISIL Militants Seize Part of Samarra
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – At least six policemen were killed and some 45 people were wounded when dozens of al-Qaeda-linked militants took over six districts in the city of Samarra in Salahudin province on Thursday, a provincial police source said on condition of anonymity.
In the early morning hours, armed members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group, entered the city on their vehicles, some with heavy machine-guns and several shovels. They attacked the security checkpoints and police stations, and built their own defenses as they took control of the neighborhoods, Xinhua news agency reported.
The gunmen raised their black flag belonging to the ISIL on several government buildings and the main Sunni mosque in the city, which located just 1,500 meters away from the shrine of Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS), the ninth Imam of Shiite Muslims which is located in the central area of the city.
Iraqi security forces surrounded the Shiite shrine as well as the security headquarters of Samarra's Operations Command to prevent the militants from reaching such sensitive targets and are waiting for reinforcement troops to prepare for a counter-attack, the source said.
Fierce battles are still underway in several parts of the city and the troops killed many militants, the source said, adding that there are no immediate reports about the exact number of casualties in the battlefields.
On Feb. 22, 2006, Samarra's shrine, which was also called the Golden Mosque, was hit by a bomb attack in which its Golden Dome was badly damaged. In 2007, insurgents again bombed the two minarets of the shrine.
