Dozens of IS militants killed in bombardment, clashes
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E-mail Xinhua, February 19, 2017
Dozens of militants of Islamic State (IS) group were killed on Saturday in artillery shelling and airstrikes by U.S.-led coalition on IS positions in the western side of the city of Mosul, while paramilitary units of Hashd Shaabi repelled IS attack in west of the city, a security source and a statement said.
The international artillery and aircraft bombarded IS positions and headquarters in Shifaa neighborhood and the city's health department in the western bank of Tigris River, which bisects Mosul, leaving at least 24 IS militants killed and wounding dozens others, Mohammed Ibrahim al-Baiyati, head of provincial security committee told Xinhua.
The bombings on the IS-held western Mosul destroyed all the positions of the extremist militants and their headquarters, Baiyati said.
Also in the day, the Hashd Shaabi units backed by army helicopter gunships repelled an attack by dozens of IS militants at a village near the IS-held town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, the statement by the paramilitary units said.
The IS militants, apparently, were trying to break the siege of Hashd Shaabi units in west of Mosul, which cut off the supply routes between Mosul and neighboring Syria, the statement said.
The clashes resulted in the killing of 20 IS militants and the destruction of three armored vehicles and a bulldozer, according to the statement.
The attack in west of Mosul came five days after another failed attack by IS militants who used tanks for the first time in the battles with the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units in west of Mosul
Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
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