BAGHDAD, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Up to 20 Islamic State (IS) militants have been killed on Sunday in a fierce clash with Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units near the border with Syria, the units said in a statement.
The attack occurred in the early morning when the Hashd Shaabi fighters, backed by artillery, repelled the attack of dozens of IS militants who crossed the border with Syria from three directions and attacked the bases of the paramilitary fighters in north of the Iraqi border area of Tal Sufoug, the statement said.
The clashes killed 20 IS militants and wounded eight other, along with the destruction of four IS vehicles, the statement added.
The Hashd Shaabi deployment near the borderline with Syria is part of a plan to secure the border areas with neighboring Syria and cut off IS supply routes between Syria and the extremist militants in the IS-held areas and towns in the western part of Iraq.
The battles in western Iraq came as the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared Mosul's liberation on July 10 after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.
