Iraq says its retaken some towns captured by ISIS

Iraqi forces recaptured towns from Islamic State fighters near militant-held Ramadi on Wednesday, a day after the government started an offensive to drive the jihadist militia out of Anbar province, a security official said.
The official, a member of the Anbar police command, said security forces backed by Shiite militias and local tribes had regained control of Tash and Hamira south of Ramadi, cutting off Islamic State supply lines in the area. He spoke on condition of anonymity, reports dpa.
Meanwhile, a pro-government Shiite militia, known as the Popular Mobilization, announced it had advanced into the area of Nabai near Ramadi, forcing the extremists to retreat.
"Daesh elements escaped once the ... Mobilization fighters entered into Nabai," Hassan al-Sari, a field commander in the militia, told Iraq's Alsumaria news, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
He added that the major militia force had pushed around 20 kilometres deeper into the area.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Earlier this month, Islamic State seized Ramadi, the capital of Anbar located about 110 kilometres from Baghdad, marking the radical Sunni group's biggest victory in Iraq in nearly a year.
The advance came as an embarrassing setback for the Iraqi government and its US-led allies.
Following Ramadi's fall, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered the Popular Mobilization militia to join the government troops in battling jihadists in mostly Sunni Anbar.
The Shiite militia played a substantial role in retaking the northern city of Tikrit two months ago amid accusations that the militiamen had looted local Sunnis' property and was acting outside the government's control.
Officials in the militia have repeatedly denied the accusations.
"The role of the Mobilization is to defend Iraq," spokesman for the militia, Karim al-Nouri, said.
"If it hadn't been for the Mobilization, Daesh could have entered Baghdad and deposed the government and parliament."
Al-Nouri said his force takes orders from the premier.
Islamic State controls vast territory of the Sunni heartland in northern and western Iraq.
The al-Qaeda splinter group also rules areas in neighbouring Syria. Last week, Islamic State seized the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria's central Homs province.
Homs Governor, Talal Barrazi, told dpa that the jihadists had destroyed some statues in the Palmyra Museum.
"We have also received some unconfirmed reports that some statues were destroyed in the Bell Temple."
Islamic State had previously demolished and looted artifacts at ancient Iraqi sites.
The jihadist group executed 20 men at a Roman theatre inside Palmyra ruins, which are listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO, after accusing them of collaborating with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a monitoring group reported on Wednesday.
The latest executions have raised to 237 the number of people beheaded by Islamic State in Palymra since May 16, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syrian Kurdish fighters have meanwhile expelled Islamic State from vast territory in north-eastern Syria and are poised to push towards a key border crossing with Turkey, the Britain-based Observatory said.
The 20-day campaign by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) has seen the jihadists lose control of a strategic mountain range near the north-eastern provincial capital al-Hassakeh and suffer 170 casualties in US-led airstrikes, the watchdog said.
Kurdish official Idriss Nassan said YPG forces had also taken the village of Mabroukeh from Islamic State, opening a route towards the extremist-held border town of Tel Abyad.
The capture of Tel Abyad, which lies between the two self-declared Kurdish autonomous cantons of Cezire and Kobane, is likely to be a difficult task.
But if the YPG succeeded in taking the border town, they would cut off Islamic State's most direct route from the Turkish border to its Syrian stronghold of al-Raqqa.
Meanwhile, the head of the al-Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra Front, Abu Mohammed al Joulani, stressed Thursday that his forces, which are part of a coalition called "Jish al Fatah" (conquest Army), "only fight whoever fights them."  
Joulani, in an interview with al Jazeera television, accused the Americans of backing the Syrian regime and warned that if the US strikes continued on their headquarters and areas across Syria, his movement would retaliate "in the best possible way."
Al-Nusra and other Islamic brigades managed to take control in April the north-western province of Idlib, which was seen as severe blow to the regime, and has pledged to push deep towards the coastal Lakatia province, a stronghold of al-Assad.
He stressed that his movement's main aim is to remove al-Assad.
"Removing this regime is not far anymore," said Joulani, whose face was not shown during the interview.