The U.S. led coalition and Iraqi jet fighters carried out Tuesday airstrikes on Islamic state positions near Baiji oil refinery, Saladin province, leaving dozens of IS militants killed. An Iraqi military source said a special forces' unit was deployed to Saladin to join ground troops including two union police armored convoys and Al Hashd Al Shaabi units currently advancing towards the refinery supported by artillery fire and air strikes to liberate the district. The operations chief affirmed that Iraqi forces had captured most of Baiji except for the edged areas considered IS strongholds. A Degla operations command unit succeeded to leach the Fathah area at Hamrin mountain, a vital passage for IS ammunition supplies from Karkouk to Saladin in which a huge number of IS militants were killed including one of the group leaders in Houweiga, Abu Abdalla Elseoudi. The forces also destroyed a number of vehicles carrying machine guns and defused several car bombs.
