Iraqi army retakes Saddam’s home village

The Iraqi army drove Sunni insurgents out of executed leader Saddam Hussein’s home village, state media and police said, part of a campaign to retake wide areas of northern and western Iraq overrun by the rebels. The Al-Qaeda splinter group leading the insurgency has declared a medieval-style Islamic caliphate erasing the borders of Iraq and Syria, and threatened to march on the Iraqi capital Baghdad to topple the Shi’ite-led central government. Pursuing a counter-offensive, government forces along with Shiite volunteers backed by helicopter gunships recaptured the village of Awja on Thursday night, according to state media, police and local inhabitants. They said three insurgents were killed in an hour-long battle, and the main body of militant forces had fled south along the eastern bank of the Tigris River across from Awja.
Source: AFP