Iraqi forces free 200 people from Daesh south of Mosul

Iraqi army forces have freed scores of people who had been imprisoned by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group near the embattled northern city of Mosul.

On Thursday, the Iraqi Army Brigade 72 and Division 15 of Nineveh Operations Command liberated 200 people, including families and children, in the villages of al-Haj Ali and Mahana, which lie around 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Mosul and in the vicinity of the town of Makhmour.

The development came on the same day as Iraqi fighter jets struck Daesh positions west of al-Siniya district in the northern province of Salahuddin as well as the outskirts of the oil-rich city of Baiji, killing scores of the extremists and destroying their explosive-laden vehicles.

Separately, Iraqi army troopers backed by fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units thwarted a Daesh offensive against the city of al-Saqlawiyah, located 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of the capital. Several Daesh Takfiris were reportedly killed and a car bomb destroyed in the process.

MG