KIRKUK: Islamic State fighters blew up a key bridge on Friday in Iraq’s Salaheddin province as they retreated in the face of an offensive by pro-government forces, officials said.

Iraqi troops, Kurdish peshmerga forces and Shiite militias have been pushing west from the city of Tuz Khurmatu since Thursday. “At 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), peshmerga and Iraqi forces attacked several areas, going from Tuz Khurmatu toward Tikrit, to reach Zerga bridge, a strategic link between the two,” Mullah Karim Shukur, a senior official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party, said. “During this advance, retreating IS forces blew up the bridge and left dozens of bodies behind.”

Shallal Abdul, the mayor of Tuz Khurmatu, said five villages had been wrested back from the militants on Thursday and four more on Friday before reaching the bridge over a tributary of the Tigris. “They are going to retake all the areas under IS control, ” he said.