The Iraqi security forces, assisted by popular and Kurdistan's Peshmerga troops, have surrounded hundreds of militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in two strategic cities North-East of Baghdad, sources said on Saturday.
The ISIL terrorists came under a full siege of the Iraqi troops in Jelola and Saeediya cities.
A senior army commander told FNA that a large number of the ISIL terrorists have been killed and many more injured in earlier clashes in the two cities.
"The clashes still continue in the same cities and Iraq's army troops will soon enter Jelola with the help of the popular and Peshmerga forces," said the source.
The crisis in Iraq escalated after the ISIL militants took control of Mosul in a lightning advance on June 10, which was followed by the fall of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) Northwest of the capital, Baghdad.
Soldiers of the Iraqi army and Pishmarga have been engaged in heavy fighting with the militants on different fronts and have so far been able to push them back in several areas.