5 killed, 35 injured in suicide truck bombing at military base in Iraq

At least five members of a Shiite paramilitary unit were killed and 35 others wounded on Tuesday in a truck bomb attack at a military base near a town in Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

The attack occurred in the morning when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden truck into the headquarters of the government-backed unit, known as Hashd Shaabi, near the town of Dowr in east of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack came as the Iraqi security forces and allied Hashd Shaabi units are carrying out operations to drive out the Islamic State (IS) militants from the areas in northern the province, including the IS-held town of Shirqat, which is located some 280 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said.

The operations in northern the province are part of a major offensive to free the areas in south of Mosul, including the town of Qayyara, to be able to surround Mosul itself from both the south and east, before heading towards the major IS stronghold in Mosul in order to flush out IS militants from the city, which lies 400 km north of Baghdad.

On Saturday, security forces and Hashd Shaabi units with dozens of tanks and armored vehicles moved from Baiji town, some 200 km north of Baghdad, toward the IS-held town of Qayyara, some 50 km south of Mosul.

The troops are ordered to take Qayyara and the nearby airport which will be used by the troops as a base to liberate Mosul.

Mosul has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces surprisingly abandoned their weapons and posts and fled.

Iraq has been witnessing a wave of violence since the IS controlled parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014. Endit