Iraqi Soldiers Kill more than 40 Militants near Baghdad

Local Editor

Iraqi soldiers killed more than 40 militants in clashes near Baghdad on Thursday as anti-government fighters edged close to the capital just weeks before national parliamentary elections.

The firefight was the latest in a surge in bloodshed over the past year as insurgents seek to sabotage the April 30 polls by upping the pace of attacks with violence already at its worst since 2008.

On Thursday morning, militants attacked an army camp in Yusifiyah, just southwest of the capital, the interior ministry said in a statement.
More than 40 insurgents died in the ensuing firefight, with one army officer also killed.
"Iraqi security forces confronted a failed attempt by ISIS gang members to break into a military camp," the statement said, referring to the so-called powerful "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" extremist group.

It further said: "The security forces ... killed more than 40 terrorist attackers, and the attack resulted in the death of one of our officers when he was confronting these criminal gangs."
Two heavy machineguns, 15 rifles and five grenade launchers were seized, along with other equipment, the statement said.

The clashes in Yusifiyah come after days of fighting in the Zoba and Zaidan areas west of Baghdad.
The fighting spurred concerns that militants who have for months controlled the town of Fallujah, a short drive from Baghdad, could be looking to open a new front to encroach on the capital.

Elsewhere on Thursday, a car bomb in northern Iraq, near the restive ethnically-mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu, killed four soldiers and wounded 12 other people, said the mayor, Shallal Abdul.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team