BAGHDAD, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces launched Saturday an operation to ensure security on the main road in Iraq's central province of Salahudin after Islamic State (IS) militants killed dozens of people at faked checkpoints in the area, the Iraqi military said.
The operation was launched in the early morning when federal police forces and several paramilitary Hashd Shaabi brigades swept large areas around the main road in south of Tuz-Khurmato city, some 180 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a Hashd Shaabi statement said.
The troops also carried out a search operation in the rugged area in west of the road and east of the town of Amerly, some 150 km north of Baghdad, the statement said.
During the day, the troops cleared 20 villages and managed to kill a number of IS militants, including three suicide bombers, along with destroying nine of their hideouts and seizing caches of weapons, ammunition and landmines, it added.
In a separate statement, Abu Ridha al-Najjar, a Hashd Shaabi commander in northern Iraq, said that the Hashd Shaabi brigades and other security forces advanced in four directions in south of Tuz-Khurmato to end the terrorist attacks by the extremist militants on the road which also links Baghdad and Kirkuk.
Iraqi security forces launch operations from time to time to hunt down IS militants who carried out attacks against civilians and Iraqi security forces in north and south of Tuz-Khurmato and the nearby Kirkuk province.
Salahudin's provincial governor, Ahmed al-Jubouri, frequently complained that the IS has been regrouping in the vast rugged areas in the eastern part of the province that stretch to the neighboring Diyala province and the nearby Himreen mountainous area.
During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former bases in the key cities of the predominately Sunni Arab province of Salahudin, including the provincial capital Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas during major anti-IS offensives.
