Iraq’s Salahuddin provincial governor survives assassination attempt

The governor of Iraq’s Central Province of Salahuddin has escaped a roadside bomb explosion unhurt as government forces and allied fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units are engaged in joint operations to cleanse the country of the last remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

According to Press TV, Mohammed Khalil al-Bazi from Salahuddin Operations Command said the blast ripped through the convoy of Ammar Jabr Khalil al-Jabouri north of the oil-rich city of Baiji, located some 210 kilometers north of the capital Baghdad, on Thursday.

Bazi said the explosion wounded two bodyguards of the governor and badly damaged a vehicle in the motorcade.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, but some local news outlets suggest it was carried out by Daesh.

On August 8, 2016, former Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi's convoy came under sniper fire but he was unharmed.

Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, the Spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC), said the attack took place in the western outskirts of Baiji.

“The minister is well and safe,” Rasool said, adding that a guard had been slightly injured in the attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assassination attempt.

Meanwhile, pro-government Iraqi fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, have killed nearly a dozen Daesh terrorists in the country’s troubled Western Province of Anbar.

Hashd al-Sha’abi Commander Safa al-Sa’adi said the voluntary fighters and army forces, backed by air force fighter jets, carried out a cleanup operation on the outskirts of Tharthar town, situated 120 kilometers north of Baghdad, killing 11 terrorists and destroying an amount of weapons and explosive materials.

Sa’adi added that the slain Takfiris were planning to carry out a bombing attack in Tharthar.

ME