IS targets Iraq military base
January 3, 2016
The attack on the base, where Iraqi security forces were being trained, was claimed by the "Islamic State" terror group Sunday.
"Under the cover of fog, they broke into Speicher," Mahmud al-Sorchi, spokesman of a paramilitary force to take back the province of Nineveh, told reporters. "Nineveh police managed to kill seven attackers, but three were able to detonate their suicide vests," Sorchi said, adding that three officers were among the 12 dead policemen. Twenty other troops were injured in the strike. The death toll was expected to rise.
The bombers wore explosive belts and "attacked the Camp Speicher where volunteers from Mosul are trained," another official told dpa news agency on condition of anonymity. He used the Arabic acronym for the "Islamic State" (IS).
IS claimed the attack, saying seven of its suicide bombers had entered the military base, which lies about 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of Baghdad. In an online statement, the extremist group said its fighters reached a base where 1,200 soldiers were being trained, news agency AFP reported.
Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, is under the control of "Islamic State," which has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria since early 2014. Earlier this week, Iraqi forces took back Ramadi from the militant group. The city is the second to be taken back from IS after Iraqi forces reoccupied Tikrit in April last year.
mg/se (AFP, dpa)