On Sunday morning, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) – in coordination with Hashd Al-Sha’abi – stormed the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham’s (ISIS) defensive positions at Baiji, killing scores of enemy combatants from the terrorist organization and destroying a half dozen of their armored vehicles inside this city located north of Tikrit in the Salaheddeen Governorate.
The powerful assault on Baiji began when soldiers from the ISF attacked the National Neighborhood, where the militants from ISIS had entrenched a large force around the western perimeter of this residential area; however, the terrorist organization was unable to fend-off of the Iraqi Army’s swarming soldiers, resulting in their capture of this neighborhood after one hour of violent clashes.
Following the capture of the Al-Fatah Mosque, the Iraqi Army and Hashd Al-Sha’abi were able to capture the Baiji Cemetery, Al-Fatah Mosque, Baiji National Hospital, Modern Neighborhood, the Al-Thaniwiyah Secondary School, Al-Rasilah Neighborhood, and the New Baiji Police Station before declaring the city-center under their full-control by Sunday afternoon.
Firefights are still ongoing between the Iraqi Armed Forces and the militants of ISIS at the northern outskirts of Baiji, but the latter is on the verge of completely withdrawing, as the Iraqi Air Force pound their positions with multiple airstrikes.
The ISF’s resurgence in the city of Baiji comes one month after the disappointing defeat to the ISIS militantsat Al-Ramadi (provincial capital of the Al-‘Anbar Governorate); this resulted in the terrorist organization imposing control over 80 percent of the Al-‘Anbar Governorate in western Iraq.
