ISIL Takfiri militant group has reportedly arrested over 40 of its own members in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin on charges of fleeing the battlefield, and transferred them to the neighboring Kirkuk Province for trial.

Sadeq al-Hussaini, a member of the Diyala provincial council, told Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network on Thursday that ISIL detained the fellow extremists after accusing them of escaping clashes with Iraqi government forces in Motabaijiah region in Salahuddin Province.

They have reportedly been transferred to a building on the outskirts of Hawija town, located 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, and are awaiting trial under ISIL's judicial system. They will be most likely executed by firing squad in front of a large number of onlookers, as the terrorist outfit has used such execution methods to kill its own militants in the past.

Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces killed seven ISIL Takfiris as they thwarted an overnight militant onslaught on al-Mafraq district in the province of Salahuddin.

Iraqi forces also launched an operation in the Subhayat region of the troubled Anbar Province, killing two ISIL extremists and destroying rocket launch sites. Bomb disposal experts also cleared two booby-trapped houses in the area.

ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily armed militants took control of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen are engaged in battles with the terrorists to drive them out of the areas they have under control.