At least 19 people, including 11 security personnel were killed in clashes with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists Monday across Iraq, a security source said.
The dead also included three fighters associated with the al-Hashd al-Shaabi, a Shiite militia, in eastern Iraq’s Diyala governorate, the source added.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces secured al-Motasim area south of Samarra city in Saladin province. Hospitals and schools were also destroyed in the area by the terrorist group, an Iraqi defense ministry statement said.
The Iraqi security forces also dismantled 60 improvised explosive devices in the area, the statement added.
Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June, when the ISIL group stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it calls a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
