Iraqi Forces Thwart Terrorist Attacks in Kirkuk

Date: 25 May 2018 - 21:29

News ID: ۵۳۳۳۴

BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Nearly a dozen members of the Daesh terrorist group have been killed after Iraqi security forces, supported by pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, foiled their attacks in the country’s northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk.
A joint force from Hawija police and voluntary fighters, better known by as Hashd al-Sha’abi in Arabic, repelled terrorist attacks on the villages of Gharib and Hanaf, south of the provincial capital city of Kirkuk, killing 11 extremists in the process, Arabic-language al-Taghier television network quoted Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool as saying.
Rasool added that five Takfiris clad in explosive vests were among the slain terrorists.
A policeman and a Hashd al-Sha’abi fighter were killed during the clashes as well.
Meanwhile, the JOC announced in a statement that Iraqi F-16 fighter jets had bombarded Daesh positions and a weapons cache in Syria’s Hegeen region, located 40 kilometers from the border town of al-Qa'im in Iraq’s western province of al-Anbar.
The statement added that the terrorist sites were completely destroyed in the aerial attacks.
Iraqi authorities have on several occasions stated that they work closely with the Syrian government to monitor and target terrorist targets based on the efforts of intelligence and information departments of the security coordination committee formed between Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran and Moscow years ago, as well as coordination with the so-called U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition.
In an earlier incident, at least seven people lost their lives and several others sustained injuries in a bomb attack that struck a Shia district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, officials said.
Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance of the Saqlawiyah park in Shoala district in northern Baghdad late on Wednesday, leaving at least seven people dead.
At least 16 people were also wounded in the terrorist attack, which comes just days after the start of the holy month of Ramadan when Iraqi families often stay out late after breaking their daily fast.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but such assaults bear the hallmarks of those carried out by Takfiri Daesh terrorists.

Iraqi security forces check the damage at the site of an attack involving a moped laden with explosives against a convoy carrying an Iraqi election candidate in the city of Kirkuk, located some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, on April 15, 2018.