Candidate in Iraq’s upcoming elections and local officials survive suicide attack

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Two local officials and a candidate in the upcoming Iraqi elections survived a suicide bombing on Saturday morning in Anbar province in western Iraq.

Iraqi forces rescued three local officials after suicide bombers allegedly tried to break into a municipal building in the town of Hit, Iraqi Operations Command said in a statement.

The security forces killed all three would-be assassins in a firefight.

The chairman of the Hit Council, the mayor of the town, and a female candidate to the Iraqi parliamentary elections were rescued from the building in which they were trapped by the attackers, the statement read.

Reports on Sunday morning, however, claimed one suicide bomber managed to detonate within the headquarters of the Al-Hal Party in Hit, wounding a candidate and six soldiers. Four people were reportedly killed, three of which were security forces, and one municipal employee. 

Although Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the Islamic State (IS) in 2017, the group continues to carry out an insurgency as it did prior to 2014, with regular bombings and attacks in cities across Iraq.

Activities of the jihadist group are becoming more and more common in recent months, with a variety of tactics that include using fake security checkpoints to kidnap residents and Iraqi security force members.