Bomb blast kills entire family in Anbar

ANBAR – Five members of the same family were killed Wednesday night when an improvised explosive device detonated on the Baiji-Haditha Road in Anbar governorate. Officials have confirmed that the explosive was recently placed and was not a leftover from past conflicts.

A security source told 964media, “The device was positioned near the headquarters of the joint control regiment.”

The victims, a family traveling in a Kia truck, included a couple, their son in his twenties, their daughter, and a young child. They owned properties in both the desert area of Al-Jazeera and the city. The explosion happened as they were returning to the city from Al-Jazeera.

Ali Hashem Husseini, spokesperson for the Popular Mobilization Forces’ Northern Axis in Salah Al-Din, stated to 964media, “ISIS militants had placed the bomb in that area. The family, residents of Anbar, were unfamiliar with the road conditions in Baiji, where the bomb detonated.”

Yesterday, a vehicle transporting five Iraqi army officers near the Suleiman Beg subdistrict of Salah Al-Din was hit by another bomb, killing one officer and injuring four others. According to a source from Khurmatu Public Hospital, “We received one deceased and four injured officers. Two of the injured are critically wounded and have been transferred to Azadi Hospital in Kirkuk.”

A week earlier, an army officer and four soldiers were killed in an attack on their post in the central governorate of Salah Al-Din. The Ministry of Defense reported that Lt. Col. Khaled Naji and several members of his regiment died while countering a terrorist assault.

A security source described the incident, “Daesh [ISIS] terrorists attacked an army post in Asbaiyat village, located in the plains between the Diyala and Salah Al-Din governorates, resulting in the deaths of four soldiers and the regiment commander.”