By Suleiman al-Qubeisi and Ibrahim Saleh
BAGHDAD (AA) – Iraqi security forces killed 14 Daesh suicide bombers on Saturday while repelling two fierce attacks by the terrorist group in Iraq’s western Anbar province, a local police official has said.
Lieutenant-Colonel Arif al-Janabi, police chief in Anbar’s Amiriyah district (located 23 kilometers south of the Daesh-held city of Fallujah), told Anadolu Agency that nine Daesh suicide attackers had infiltrated Amiriyah early Saturday morning.
“Iraqi forces surrounded five of the attackers in the Al-Rahman Mosque in central Amiriyah and another four inside a nearby building,” he said.
“All nine were killed in the ensuing gunfight, along with an army first lieutenant and a police conscript,” he added.
Five other Daesh suicide bombers, meanwhile, attacked checkpoints on the road linking Amiriyah to Babil province some 100 kilometers south of Baghdad, an army source in Anbar province told Anadolu Agency.
Speaking anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media, he added that Iraqi forces — backed by tribal fighters — had repelled the assault, killing all five attackers.
Earlier this week, at least 102 people were killed and scores injured in the Baghdad and Saladin provinces by a series of bombings for which Daesh claimed responsibility.
Iraq has been dogged by rampant insecurity since 2014, when the terrorist group overran the northern city of Mosul and declared a self-styled “caliphate” in parts of Iraq and Syria.
