Official warns against planned attack by Islamic State, northeast of Diyala
Iraqi security forces inspect the site of a car bomb attack. Archival photo.
In a statement on Sunday, Mohamed Baqir al-Tamimi, head of Abu Sayda town, said “tribes in the town are armed and ready, after information showed intentions of Islamic State militants to carry out an operation in the town to be followed by suicide attacks.”
“The main target behind this scheme is to the biggest losses among troops and civilians to destabilize security there,” he added.
Tamimi also urged security troops to intensify the airstrikes and to “enforce security deployed there due to the few number of personnel, compared to the geographic area and density of forests.”
He also urged presence of al-Hashd al-Shaabi [Popular Mobilization Forces] at regions lie abu Sayda and abu Karma, being near to areas, where IS exist.
Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, have been fighting since October 2016 to retake territories Islamic State had occupied. Since then, forces took back the group’s former capital, Mosul, the town of Tal Afar, Kirkuk’s Hawija, and Anbar’s Annah, Rawa and Qaim.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.