U.S.-led air strikes target Islamic State leaders in Iraq

U.S.-led air strikes target Islamic State leaders in Iraq

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S.-led air strikes targeted a gathering of Islamic State (IS) leaders in Iraq on Saturday, Nov 8, possibly including the group’s top man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Hadath television station reported, according to the Guardian.

Iraqi security officials were not immediately available for comment on the report from the al-Hadath station, which is part of Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television.

On Friday, a suicide truck bomber targeting a senior police officer’s convoy killed eight people, including the ranking official, authorities said.

The attack happened late on Friday, when the attacker drove his bomb-laden truck into the convoy of police lieutenant general Faisal Malik, who was inspecting troops in the town of Beiji, police said. The blast killed Faisal and seven police officers, while wounding 15 people, hospital officials and police officers said.

No one immediately claimed the attack.

Beiji is home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery, and lies 155 miles north of Baghdad.

A U.S.-led coalition has been launching air strikes on Isis militants and facilities in Iraq and Syria for months, as part of an effort to give Iraqi forces the time and space to mount a more effective offensive. Early on, IS had gained ground across northern and western Iraq in a lightning advance.

Also on Saturday, a series of bombings in and around the capital killed at least 19 people. The deadliest attack took place on a commercial street in Baghdad’s southwestern Amil neighborhood, where two car bombs killed eight people and wounded 16, police officials said.

In the southeastern neighborhood of al-Amin, at least nine people were killed and another 18 wounded when a car bomb tore through a commercial street lined with restaurants. In Yousifiya, a town just south of the capital, two people were killed and four wounded in a bombing near a fruit and vegetable market.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All police and hospital officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

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