As many as 80 people were killed and 88 wounded in a string of attacks witnessed in different parts of Iraq Thursday, security and medical sources said.iraq
Also, Iraqi security forces re-established their control of Samarra city in Salahudin province which was seized by Sunni insurgents in the morning, the sources added.
As the troops carried out a major offensive, following fierce clashes, they managed to regain six neighbourhood in Samarra, some 120 km from Baghdad. These areas had been seized by groups believed to be linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL), an Al Qaeda breakaway group in Iraq, a source said.
At least nine policemen were killed and 45 people injured in the city when insurgents launched attacks on security checkpoints and police stations in the early hours.
In the early hours, dozens of insurgents entered the city and attacked the security checkpoints and police stations, killing up to nine policemen and wounding 45 people, the source said.
Some militants attacked a minister's house and killed three guards, the source added.
Major General Sabah al-Fatlawi, Commander of Samarra Operation Command, said his troops and helicopters killed 11 militants and destroyed over eight vehicles during the morning battles.
Insurgents' attacks in Samarra prompted authorities in Nineveh province and its capital Mosul, some 400 km from Baghdad, to tighten security measures and imposed curfew in the city. It led to killing of some 40 militants, an official said.
Also in the day, a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a police checkpoint in Baiji city, some 200 km from Baghdad, leaving a police officer killed and four policemen wounded, a security source said.