Police kill 14 Islamic State militants who fled Tal Afar to Diyala

Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police forces killed 14 Islamic State militants in  northeastern Diyala province on Sunday, a local police commander was quoted saying.

Jassem al-Saadi, Diyala police chief, said in statements that the militants, who were killed in an operation at the area between Imam Weiss and Naft Khana, had arrived to the area fleeing from Tal Afar, the Islamic State’s stronghold in western Nineveh which Iraqi forces recaptured late August.

Four rest houses and a collection of explosive belts and arms were destroyed in the operation, according to Saadi.

Violence and armed conflicts left 297 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of ِAugust, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths.

Islamic State militants have launched occasional attacks against security forces and civilians in Diyala over the past few months, coinciding with government operations that managed to recapture the city of Mosul, Islamic State’s largest bastion in Iraq, and the town of Tal Afar, their last holdout in Nineveh province.

The government and its military commanders intend to wage further offensives at other Islamic State havens across the country, including Diyala, seeking to mark an end to the self-proclaimed “caliphate” the group declared  back in 2014. Commanders have marked Kirkuk’s town of Hawija as the next target of anti-Islamic State operations.