ZCZC
BFF-40
IRAQ-CONFLICT-ALQAIM
Suicide car bomber kills 11 in western Iraq
RAMADI, Iraq, Aug 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle
in the town of Al-Qaim in western Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 11
people, five of them security personnel, police said.
The 9 am (0600 GMT) bombing at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Al-Qaim
also wounded 16 people — 11 civilians and five security personnel, police
Captain Mahmud Jassem told AFP.
The town, on the Syrian border some 340 kilometres (215 miles) from
Baghdad, was one of the last in Iraq to be recaptured from the Islamic State
group in November last year.
One month later, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the
jihadists.
But since then, the security forces have announced a number of campaigns to
flush out holdout IS fighters from sparsely populated areas from which they
have continued to mount attacks.
The vast desert that straddles the border with Syria on either side of the
Euphrates valley town of Al-Qaim has been one the jihadists’ principal
hideouts.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1417 hrs