On Tuesday, a medical source said to Al-Ghad Press that a booby-trapped vehicle exploded near an overcrowded market at the Military District in Tuz Khurmatu region in Salahuddin province. Because of the explosion twenty people were killed and 70 others were wounded, but according to the medical source the number of casualties is expected to rise. The source also said that the targets of the attack were checkpoints for PMFs in al-Bu Eissa village, on borders between Salahuddin and located adjacent to Mutaibija. During this year, Salahuddin province was repeatedly rocked by several suicide bombings: only last week Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), assisted by Federal Police, succeeded in preventing an attack by IS members right near Salahuddin province. Tuz Khurmatu was also one of the areas disputed by Iraq and Kurdistan Region: in October Iraqi forces liberated the area as part of a government push to impose control over disputed territories, responding to Kurdistan’s independence referendum held in September. Recently with the liberation of Anbar’s town of Rawa, the last Islamic State’s stronghold, Iraq announced the end of the Islamic State’s territorial presence in Iraq.
