Presidency denounces deadly car bomb blast in Salahuddin
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Baghdad (IraqiNews) Iraqi Presidency condemned on Wednesday the car bomb blast that hit Tuz Khurmatu region in Salahuddin province on Tuesday.
“Such heinous crimes aim at fomenting sedition among the Iraqi people and undermining Iraq’s unity,” the presidency said in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Al-Ghad Press.
“President Fuad Masum offers condolences to the victims’ families and wishes the injured a speedy recovery,” the statement read, adding that perpetrators of this terrorist attack have no humanity or morals as they targeted innocent people.
Masum also called on Iraqi troops to be on full alert to deal with any possible terrorist attack in the coming period.
Seventeen people were killed and 36 others were injured in a car bomb blast in Tuz Khurmatu region in Salahuddin province on Tuesday, according to the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell.
A booby-trapped vehicle exploded near an overcrowded market at the Askari (Military) district in Salahuddin province, the source told Al-Ghad Press.
Salahuddin province was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings this year.
US-backed Iraqi forces have dislodged Islamic State from most of the cities it captured in 2014 and 2015. The militants also control parts of Syria.
Tuz Khurmatu was one of the areas disputed by Iraq and Kurdistan Region. Iraqi forces recaptured the area mid October as part of a government push to impose control over disputed territories in response to Kurdistan’s independence referendum held in September.
Iraq declared recently the end of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq with the recapture of the militants’ last stronghold: Anbar’s town of Rawa.