Suicide attacker killed, three foreigners arrested, east of Diyala: Commander
Iraqi security forces detain a boy after removing a suicide vest from him in Kirkuk in Iraq. Archival photo. Reuters.
“The police in Diyala managed to kill a suicide attacker and arrest three others of foreign nationalities in an operation that took place in the depth of Hamreen mountains,” Maj. Gen. Mazhar al-Azzawi, commander of Dijla Operations, told AlSumaria News.
“The command will resume efforts to eliminate the presence of extremist groups in Diyala,” he added.
Security troops managed to kill several suicide attackers over the past few months in different regions across the province.
On Sunday, Mohamed Baqir al-Tamimi, head of Abu Sayda town, said tribes in the north east of Diyala are armed and ready to confront terrorist attacks by Islamic State. He indicated information on intentions of IS militants to carry out an operation in the town to be followed by suicide attacks.
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.