KIRKUK: Iraqi security forces backed by aircraft have repelled an insurgent attack on a northern Turkmen town, killing 15 militants, a local official said Thursday.

The attack by Islamic State (IS) insurgents and allied militants on the town of Amirli took place Wednesday, said Talib Al-Bayati, an official from nearby Suleiman Bek. “Iraqi forces, with the help of military aircraft, repelled an attack on Amirli on three sides and killed 15 gunmen, according to an initial toll,” said Bayati.

Amirli lies to the south of Suleiman Bek, which fell to an IS-led onslaught that swept parts of Iraq’s north and west last month.

Also on Wednesday, government forces drove IS gunmen out of three northern districts of the city of Baquba, capital of Diyala province in eastern Iraq, security and medical sources said. They said two members of the security forces were killed in the fighting and 11 others wounded.

On Thursday, a suicide car bomb against a police checkpoint in Taji killed at least two policemen and a civilian, a police colonel told AFP.