At least 44 people, mostly senior ISIL members, died when the group failed in its attempt to release them from a prison, west of Baquba. At least 9 other militants were killed in separate clashes with Iraqi police in the same city.

ISIL terrorists launched their offensive by seizing the north's main city, Mosul, last week and have swept through the Tigris river valley north of Baghdad. They have boasted of massacring hundreds of troops and civilians including women captured in their advance.

The terrorists have been joined by other factions, including former members of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

State television also said ISIL militants also attacked a northern Iraqi village, called Basher, 15 km (9 miles) south of Kirkuk, inhabited by Shi'ite ethnic Turkmens. They were repelled, police said. Kirkuk itself has been taken by forces from the autonomous Kurdish region.

Iraqi officials also say the militants are in control of some parts of the strategic town of Tal Afar in Nineveh Province.

The mainly Turkmen city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, fell to ISIL late on Sunday, and the Iraqi military said it was sending reinforcement there. The Iraqi army said on state television it had killed a top militant, named Abu Abdul Rahman al-Muhajir, in Mosul in clashes.

Iraqi lawmakers say 1200 additional troops have been deployed to Tal Afar to fight the militants there.

NJF/NJF