Islamic State (ISIS) militants claimed responsibility for killing eighteen people in a bombing and shooting attack on the town of Tikrit in Iraq on Saturday.
The ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency said the militants were targeting police and “rejectionist Hashid” (the ISIS term for Iraqi government allied Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militia forces) in the attack.
On Saturday the militants first opened fire on a checkpoint to the city’s north and then detonated two bombs. One was killed in a gunfight after killing five security personnel and two civilians, according to Iraqi sources cited by Reuters.
Two other militants made it another 7 km beyond the checkpoint to the city limits where one blew up the pickup in a suicide attack and the other detonated his suicide vest, killing 11 people.
If ISIS were responsible the attack would constitute the first time the militants attacked Tikrit since being driven from the city by the Iraqi military, supported by American-led air power, on April 2015. It also comes after the recent Iraqi recapture of the town of Shirqat, 100 kilometers north of Tikrit, from ISIS as Iraq prepares to assault ISIS in Mosul.
The ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency said the militants were targeting police and “rejectionist Hashid” (the ISIS term for Iraqi government allied Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militia forces) in the attack.
On Saturday the militants first opened fire on a checkpoint to the city’s north and then detonated two bombs. One was killed in a gunfight after killing five security personnel and two civilians, according to Iraqi sources cited by Reuters.
Two other militants made it another 7 km beyond the checkpoint to the city limits where one blew up the pickup in a suicide attack and the other detonated his suicide vest, killing 11 people.
If ISIS were responsible the attack would constitute the first time the militants attacked Tikrit since being driven from the city by the Iraqi military, supported by American-led air power, on April 2015. It also comes after the recent Iraqi recapture of the town of Shirqat, 100 kilometers north of Tikrit, from ISIS as Iraq prepares to assault ISIS in Mosul.
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