Security forces retake town in northern Iraq

Iraqi security forces on Monday recaptured the town of Sulaiman Beg in Salahudin province after more than two months of being sieged by the Islamic State militant group, a provincial police source said.
"The town of Sulaiman Beg is under control of the combined forces of Iraqi army, Peshmerga (Kurdish force) and volunteers," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The troops are still clearing the booby-trapped buildings and roadside bombs in the town, which located some 90 km east of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, the source said.
The militants fled the town to the west, where large areas still under the control of the Islamic State militant group, an al- Qaida offshoot group, the source said, adding that fighting in under way in the nearby village of Yankaja east of the town.
On Sunday, the state-run Iraqiya channel quoted commander of the security forces Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al-Zaiydi as saying that his troops and the Shiite volunteers had seized part of Sulaiman Beg after heavy clashes, and that explosive experts are defusing dozens of booby-trapped houses and roadside bombs.
"The terrorists planted dozens of bombs in the houses and roads to cripple the advance of the troops, and we will take the needed time which won't be long to free the town," al-Zaiydi said.
The recapture of Sulaiman Beg came a day after the combined security forces made a break through to the town of Amerli, some 90 km east of Tikrit, as well as several nearby villages after more than two months of being sieged by the Islamic State militant group.
The security forces backed by thousands of Shiite militiamen and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters moved in the town of Amerli under U. S. and Iraqi air support, and fought fierce clashes with the militants.
Meanwhile, Governor of Salahudin province Raid Ibrahim al- Jubouri told Xinhua on Sunday that "taking control of Amerli, Sulaiman Beg and the surrounding main roads and villages, would be the beginning to free all Salahudin province, including the provincial capital city of Tikrit, from the Daash (the Islamic State)."
Salahudin province is a predominantly Sunni province and its capital Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, is the hometown of former President Saddam Hussein.
The security situation began to drastically deteriorate in Iraq since June 10, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of Sunni militants, who took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after the Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.