BAGHDAD, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- A total of seven Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Monday in clashes with Iraqi security forces in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, the Iraqi military said.

The Iraqi army and a paramilitary Hashd Shaabi unit carried out an operation in the volatile area of Edheim and killed five IS militants in Albu Awad village in the northern part of the province, the Hashd Shaabi said in a statement.

In a separate incident, the Iraqi soldiers clashed with IS militants in Albu Bakr village in northern Diyala and killed two militants, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The extremist IS militants frequently attack the urban areas in Diyala province using the orchards near the villages and the sprawling rugged area in northern and northwestern Diyala, which also extends to the main IS redoubt in Mteibijah at the provincial border line with the neighboring Salahudin province.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the U.S., which invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003.