Army soldiers shoot down bomber in Talafar

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: An Iraqi army force shot dead a suicide bomber who attempted to blow himself up near an elementary school in a village in northern Talafar on Sunday, according to a senior military source. “A suicide bomber with an explosives strapped to his chest tried to attack al-Ma’rifa elementary school in al-Madhlumeen village (4 km) northern Talafar,” Brig. Abdulrahman Handhal, the commander of the Iraqi army’s 3rd Division’s 10th Brigade, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The bomber, who was wearing a long coat that raised the suspicions of army soldiers, took out a gun and opened fire on security forces that called him, prompting them to shoot him dead,” Handhal added. Talafar lies 60 km northwest of the city of Mosul. He said that the bomber’s explosive belt was detonated without incident. Mosul, the capital city of the violence-stricken province of Ninewa, is 405 km north of Baghdad. AmR (P) 1