Iraqi forces control over 90% of Salahuddin province

Iraqi Federal Police said Saturday they became in control over 90 percent of Islamic State’s stronghold in Salahuddin province, a few days after operations launched for the group’s few remaining havens in Iraq. The service’s chief, Shaker Jawdat, said his forces became in control over 90 percent of the eastern side of Shirqat town. He said militants fled towards al-Zab river, adding that forces were two kilometers away from it.

A source told Baghdad Today, meanwhile, that Islamic State has embarked on collective executions of members who attempted to flee battles in Salahuddin to Hawija, the group’s stronghold in neighboring Kirkuk where parallel security operations are running to retake militants-held regions.

The executed members were ambushed on their way out, according to the source, who added that those included the group’s local judge. Earlier on Saturday, Jawdat said 225 militants had been killed since the launch of operations in Shirqat.

The Iraqi government declared last week the launch of simultaneous operations to retake Islamic State strongholds in Kirkuk’s Hawija and Salahuddin’s Shirqat where a few thousands of militants are believed to remain. Islamic State militants emerged in 2014, taking over large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria to proclaim a self-styled  “caliphate”.

Operations by the Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces, have, so far, managed to retake the group’s former capital, Mosul, as well as the town of Tal Afar, both in Nineveh province. Coinciding with the offensives in Shirqat and Hawija, security forces have also launched a campaign to liberate Islamic State’s havens in western Anbar’s towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaim.

In Hawija, Islamic State militants performed “farewell prayer” in its holdout in Kirkuk, a local source said adding that militants had options either to turn in themselves or to choose paradise.

Speaking to AlSumaria News on Saturday, the source said, “IS leaders including the group’s chief of Hawija, known as Abu Moslem al-Iraqi, gave a sermon and performed farewell prayer in one of the main mosques in the town.”

“Al-Iraqi said in his speech that what they have been controlling is vanishing and that the militants have either options to turn in themselves or to blow up themselves in battles to go to paradise,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.

“Iraqi handed over his powers to one of his assistants, who is a Hawija resident, before he bid farewell to the group and withdrew among others from the town,” the source said.

Earlier this month, the group performed the same prayers as militants were preparing to flee before anticipated military operations to recapture the town.

On Thursday, Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasoul, spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said the number of Islamic State members in Hawija falls between 800 and 1500.

Earlier on the same day, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and Lt.Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah, deputy commander of the Joint Operations Command announced launch of first phase of operations to liberate Hawija and western Shirqat. Several villages in Shirqat have been retaken.

Hawija and other neighboring regions, west of Kirkuk, have been held by IS since mid-2014, when the group emerged to proclaim an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria