Iraqi army troops, backed by volunteer forces, stepped up their operations against the ISIL militants forcing them in the Turkmen region of al-Sa’diye in Diyala to flee toward Hamrin Mountains located near the Iranian border with Iraq on Saturday.

The development comes on the same day that the Iraqi army, backed by thousands of tribal gunmen and volunteer forces, managed to retake control of the volatile city of Tikrit from the al-Qaeda-linked militants.

On June 10, the Takfiri militants gained control of Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s Nineveh Province, which was followed by the fall of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

Over the past days, Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the terrorists, who have threatened to take their acts of violence to other Iraqi cities, including the capital.

However, their advance has been slowed down as Iraqi military forces and volunteer fighters have begun engaging them on several fronts, pushing the militants out of several areas they had earlier overrun, including the city of Tikrit, which was retaken by Iraqi forces on Saturday.

RA/SHI