Iraqi security forces repelled Islamic State (IS) militant attacks against military posts in villages south of the IS-held city of Mosul, a military spokesperson said.

Mosul is the capital of Iraq's northern province of Nineveh. The attacks left at least 45 IS militants killed, said the spokesperson.

Dozens of IS militants, including suicide bombers and cars laden with bombs, attacked Iraqi army posts Tuesday in a cluster of villages near the militant-seized town of Qayyara, 50 km south of Mosul.

However, security forces and allied paramilitary Sunni tribal units repelled the IS attacks, said Brigadier General Firas Sabri, spokesperson of Liberation of Nineveh Operations Command.

"Our troops, backed by the U.S.-led coalition aircraft and heavy artillery shelling, battled the terrorists' attack following several hours of fierce clashes," Sabri told Xinhua.

The clashes resumed at dawn on Wednesday when the IS attacked military posts near the village of al-Naser in northeast Qayyara, with troops once more repelling the attacks, Sabri added.

The clashes resulted in the death of at least 45 IS militants, including three suicide bombers, the destruction of two cars laden with bombs as well as three IS vehicles carrying heavy machine guns, Sabri said, adding that five soldiers were also wounded during the clashes.

IS militants frequently attack security forces sent from Baghdad to the Makhmour military base beside the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan in order to chase away IS militants from Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

The latest IS attacks targeted villages freed on March 24 by Iraqi forces and Kurdish security forces, known as the Peshmerga, during the first phase of a major offensive, recapturing several villages previously controlled by the IS in southern Mosul.

According to Iraqi officials, the operation to free Mosul and other IS-controlled sections in the province of Nineveh was undertaken by the Iraqi army, the Peshmerga, and the U.S.-led coalition, with the participation of paramilitary units comprised of local volunteers, including Sunni Arab tribesmen.

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