65 killed in clashes, bomb attacks in Iraq

A total of 56 people were killed in the clashes between security forces and the Islamic State (IS) militants across Iraq and 9 others killed in bomb attacks targeting restaurants in the capital Baghdad on Sunday, security sources said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, the security forces backed by Shiite militiamen and aircraft retook control of eight villages in the rural area in northeast of the volatile town of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, after fierce clashes with the IS militants, leaving at least 35 IS militants killed, an Interior Ministry statement quoted Lieutenant General Jamil al-Shimary, the provincial police chief, as saying.

By Sunday's battles, the troops have freed the whole area of Shirween valley and redeployed later to free the remaining small area in north of Maqdadiyah which still under the IS control, the statement said.

The battles in Diyala were part of a major offensive by the Iraqi forces and allied Shiite militias launched early Friday with the aim of ending the presence of the extremist militants in whole Iraq's eastern province of Diyala.

In Anbar province, the IS militants clashed with the Iraqi forces in al-Khasfa area in west of the town of Haditha, some 200 km northwest of Baghdad, which has been freed on Thursday by the Iraqi forces from the extremist militants, leaving 12 security members killed and seven others wounded, a provincial security source anonymously told Xinhua.

The battle also resulted in the killing of four IS militants and the capture of three others, the source said.

Separately, clashes erupted between the Iraqi security forces backed by allied Sunni tribesmen and the IS militants in south of the militants-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, leaving five IS militants killed and 12 others wounded, the source added.

Earlier in the day, a police source told Xinhua that a total of nine people were killed and 27 wounded in three bomb attacks targeting restaurants in Baghdad.

Five people were killed and 12 others wounded when a bomb hidden in a plastic bag detonated in a restaurant in Bab al-Sharji area in downtown Baghdad.

Another bomb went off near a small restaurant in al-Sibaa area in central Baghdad, left three people killed and eight others wounded, the source said.

A third bomb attack ripped through a restaurant in Habibiyah area in eastern the capital, killing a civilian and wounding seven others, he added.

The security situation in Iraq began to drastically deteriorate on June 10, 2014, when bloody clashes broke out between the Iraqi security forces and the IS group, an al-Qaida offshoot, who took control of the country's northern province of Nineveh and later seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in other predominantly Sunni provinces.

The country has been witnessing some of the worst violence in years, killing at least 12,282 civilians and injuring 23,126 others in 2014, the deadliest year since the flare-up of sectarian violence in 2006-2007, according to a recent UN report. Enditem