Iraqi troops kill two Islamic State terrorists in Nineveh
A man looks at the site where a car packed with explosives blew up yesterday, in Hayy al-Shurta, a Shi’ite district in Baghdad, Iraq February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Ali al-Mashhadani – RTSZ32H
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi troops killed on Saturday two Islamic State terrorists, who planned to carry out a motorbike bomb attack in Nineveh province.
Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jubouri, the commander of Nineveh Operations, told AlSaumaria News that an army force received intelligence information on the presence of two IS terrorists in Tal Abta district in Nineveh.
Backed by federal police and tribal fighters, the army force managed to kill the pair and seized a booby-trapped motorbike, which they planned to use in a terrorist attack, Jubouri said.
He added that the motorbike was successfully dismantled by the explosives experts.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.
IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.