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BAGHDAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Monday clashed with the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, while the Iraqi defense minister escaped unharmed a mortar and gunfire attack by the extremist militants on his convoy near the city of Mosul, a security source and the defense minister office said.
During the day, the IS militants in the militant-seized town of Qayyara, some 50 km south of Mosul, fired mortar rounds and opened fire from machine guns on the convoy of the Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi while traveling on a nearby road leading to Nineveh Liberation Operations Command in Makhmour military base in southeast of Mosul, Obeidi's office said in a statement posted on the minister's official page of Facebook.
Obeidi's guards engaged in heavy fighting with the IS militants before they continue traveling to the Operations Command, which is tasked with liberating Iraq's last major IS stronghold in Mosul, the statement said.
Obeidi arrived at Makhmour base and held a meeting with military commanders to discuss the troops' advance to liberate Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, according to the statement.
Read the full story at Xinhua