IS claims attack on Iraqi training camp north of Baghdad

BAGHDAD – The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an attack Monday on a military training centre in Diyala north of Baghdad that killed at least four soldiers and wounded four others, including two officers, according to a statement released by the group and two Iraqi officers.

Six attackers struck the base, according to the Iraqi officers. The IS statement put the number of attackers at four and said “dozens” were killed and wounded. The Iraqi officers said five attackers detonated suicide vests once inside the centre and by afternoon the situation was “under control,” but five Iraqi military vehicles were torched by the blasts.

The officers spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

IS has carried out a number of similar attacks targeting military facilities since the operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul was launched in October. Iraqi forces are closing in on the last IS held neighbourhoods in western Mosul after the city’s east was declared liberated in January. IS overran almost a third of Iraqi territory in 2014.

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Youssef reported from Cairo.