Muthanna security foil Islamic State attack with bomb vehicles

Samawah (IraqiNews.com) Security services in the southern Iraqi province of Muthanna said Sunday they had foiled an attack by the Islamic State using booby-trapped vehicles.

The announcement comes two days after authorities there raised the security alert to a highest degree as intelligence information told that five booby-trapped vehicles were heading to the province’s city of Samawah.

Muthanna governor Faleh al-Ziyadi told Sky Press that security forces apprehended the five vehicles at the city’s southern entrance.

The governor said that two other vehicles in the same convoy had headed to Basra province, carrying out the suicide bombing which left civilian casualties on late Friday. The vehicles exploded at al-Remeila military checkpoint, located on a highway near oilfields in Basra. Eleven persons were killed, while 32 others were wounded.

Violence and armed conflicts claimed the lives of 317 Iraqis and caused injuries to 403 others during the month of April, according to a monthly United Nations count.

According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Nineveh, where U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops are caught up in battles against Islamic State militants in Mosul since October, was the most affected governorate, with 276 casualties (153 killed, 123 injured). Baghdad Governorate followed with 55 killed and 179 injured. Salahuddin came third, with 15 killed and 43 injured.