ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A suicide car bomber killed two fighters of the Hashd al-Shaabi Shiite militia and wounded six others, including a civilian, in the town of Suleiman Beg in Iraq’s Salahadin province on Sunday, security sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. However, Islamic State (ISIS) fighters are known to be active in the area, Suleiman Beg, a small town inhabited by Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs, has been under the control of the Hashd militia that is allied with the Iraqi military. The town is strategic because it links to Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, and is the gateway to the Kurdish-populated Garmian region. Immediately after the attack, the Hashd fighters reportedly closed the main Kirkuk-Baghdad road, stopping traffic from passing through and leading to tensions with the Iraqi Federal Police.
