(Reuters) – Iraqi troops backed by helicopter gunships fought on Saturday to retake full control of a northern town from militants who overran parts of it earlier this week, the mayor and other local officials said.
Talib Mohammed, the mayor of Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, said the army had met fierce resistance in some parts of the town, after gaining some ground on Friday.
“Snipers and roadside bombs are preventing the army from totally controlling the town,” he said. “A police captain was killed by a sniper this morning while he was trying to evacuate his family.”
Militants raised the black flag of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – a Sunni group also fighting in neighboring Syria – over parts of Sulaiman Pek on Thursday.
Read the rest of the story at Reuters.
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