Iraqi forces foil IS suicide attacks in Iraq's Salahudin

Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units foiled two suicide bomb attacks by Islamic State (IS) militants in Salahudin province, the media reported.

The attack took place in the early morning on Tuesday when a suicide car bomb and a suicide bomber wearing explosive vest attacked the Hashd Shaabi base on the main road linking Salahudin's provincial capital Tikrit to the province of Kirkuk, the units said in a statement.

The paramilitary members detonated the car bomb and killed the suicide bombers before they reached their targets in the military base, the statement said, adding that two of the Hashd Shaabi members were wounded by the blasts, Xinhua news agency reported.

In Salahudin province, IS is still in control of Makhoul mountain range and the villages between the range and the Tigris River.

Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units have freed Tikrit, about 170 km north of Baghdad, and other key cities and towns in the predominately Sunni Arab province of Salahudin.

In a separate incident during the day, a man, his wife and three children were killed when a roadside bomb struck their truck near the town of Qara-Tapa, about 175 km from here.

--IANS

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