Iraqi Forces 'Retake Dhuluiyah from ISIL'
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iraqi forces completed the recapture of Dhuluiyah, parts of which had been held by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group for months, commanders said.
Pro-government forces had pushed into the town, located 90km outside Baghdad, from the north two days earlier, fighting their way south.
"Forces from the army and the police and tribal fighters succeeded today in regaining control of Dhuluiyah," an army major general told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
The officer said that 50 military vehicles advanced from the north and linked up with allied forces in the town's southern Jubur area, which had resisted repeated assault by ISIL.
This "means the complete liberation of Dhuluiyah and the end of the (ISIL) presence," he added.
A leader in the Shiite Badr militia, which took part in the operation, confirmed the "complete liberation of Dhuluiyah".
"We succeeded in breaking the blockade which was imposed by (ISIL) on the Jubur tribe," the commander said.
People fired in the air and honked car horns in celebration, according to a policeman in the town, which is strategically located on roads linking the eastern province of Diyala to Salaheddin province in the north.
Omar al-Juburi, a leader of the tribal forces battling ISIL, said earlier that military reinforcements had arrived to carry out a renewed push to retake the town.
Clashes took place in some areas on Tuesday where ISIL forces were holed up in houses, Juburi said.
ISIL fighters have been carrying out "suicide attacks" on pro-government forces, he added.
On Monday, ISIL published pictures online showing what it described as battles in Dhuluiyah.
