Clashes between the Iraqi army and ISIL Takfiri militants continued unabated in northern Salahuddin province with Iraqi air force killing at least 45 militants

Clashes between the Iraqi army and ISIL Takfiri militants continued unabated in northern Salahuddin province with Iraqi air force killing at least 45 militants.

According to a Monday statement by Iraqi Interior Ministry, the militants were killed in an airstrike by the Iraqi army’s air force in the northern districts of Salahuddin.

“The airstrike resulted in killing 45 ISIL fighters in the district of al-Sharqat and the areas of Makfoul, al-Mallaha, and al-Ba’aji in the district of Baiji,” the statement further said, according to online newspaper Iraqi News.

The development comes as the Takfiri militants keep attacking the district of al-Dajil and the Baiji’s oil refinery.

“Baiji’s refinery and the district of al-Dajil are constantly under fierce ISIL attacks," Khaled al-Khazraji, the deputy president of the security committee in Salahuddin Provincial Council, told Iraqi News.

 He further noted that al-Jazirah is the area from which the ISIL attacks are launched.

“The forces are not blockaded inside the refinery, but they need reinforcements,” Khazraji added.

Reports said on Monday that the Takfiri group has forced civilians in the district of Hawija in the province of Kirkuk to dress as militants. 

“Daesh (Arabic acronym for ISIL) militias have recently asked residents of Hawija to dress up as the group’s militants and warned lawbreakers they will face punishment as harsh as the death penalty,” Sarhad Qadir, director of police in Kirkuk province, told the Kurdish newspaper Rudaw.

In the district of Zab in Kirkuk, the ISIL militants have punished a young man for wearing a t-shirt that had foreign phrases.

“This morning, ISIL flogged a young man from the Zab District 30 times for wearing a T-shirt containing foreign words in the center of the district (60 km southwest of Kirkuk),” a local source said, adding, the Takfiri group has “required men, young people and even children to wear Afghan uniforms,” and threatened to “punish the violators of these instructions.”