TIKRIT, Iraq, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Three Islamic State (IS) militants were killed and three others captured Wednesday after the Iraqi paramilitary Sunni tribal fighters repelled an IS attack near a town in Iraq's central province of Salahudin.

The leader of a paramilitary brigade, Hmoud al-Shimmary, told Xinhua that the Sunni fighters clashed with IS militants who tried to attack the town of Tlul al-Baj in the northern part of Salahudin province, leaving three IS militants killed and three others captured, while others fled the scene in two vehicles to the nearby desert.

The captured militants were interrogated and confessed that they kidnapped some of the Sunni Shimmar tribesmen and killed some of them, al-Shimmary said.

Two of the tribal fighters were also injured by the clashes, he added.

Meanwhile, the police found a body of a civilian who was kidnapped earlier from Tlul al-Baj area by the extremist militants, Colonel Mohammed al-Jubouri from the media office of Salahudin's provincial police told Xinhua.

The body was blindfolded and handcuffed with bullet holes in the head and chest, Jubouri said.

In the past few days, the IS extremist militants kidnapped some 30 civilians from Shimmar tribe in separate incidents, and so far, nine bodies of those kidnapped were found executed.

During the past months, hundreds of IS militants fled their former urban strongholds in Mosul, Salahudin province and Hawija area in the west of Kirkuk, after Iraqi forces cleared these regions of IS militants during major offensives.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from the IS after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.

However, small groups and individuals of IS militants have since then regrouped in rugged areas including Himreen, carrying out attacks against security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down.