MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The militants captured the territories, including a strategic road, following clashes with Iraqi security forces controlling the area, local sources told Shafaq News.
The militants started their offensive from the area near the Hamrin Mountains in northeastern Iraq, the sources said.
At least 12 Daesh militants and seven members of the Iraqi security forces have been killed in the clashes, which are still ongoing, according to the sources.
Since 2014, vast territories in Iraq and neighboring Syria have been occupied by Daesh, which has proclaimed a caliphate on the land under its control.
Daesh is a terrorist group that denounces Shia Muslims, who make up almost 70 percent of the Iraqi population, as heretics. Daesh, outlawed in many countries including Russia, has carried out numerous terror attacks and committed many human rights atrocities in the country.
