BAGHDAD, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces Wednesday killed five suicide bomber from the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, the Iraqi military said.
A joint force from Iraqi army and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi ambushed five suicide bombers wearing explosive vests and surrounded them in their vehicle in Badoush area in northwest of Mosul, Yahya Rasoul, spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, said in a statement.
The troops opened fire on the vehicle, killing the five suicide bombers and set the vehicle ablaze, the statement said.
Earlier, the Iraqi Army's Chief of Staff Othman al-Ghanimi told reporters at a press conference that Iraqi security forces captured 24 IS militants, including four leaders, who infiltrated from neighboring Syria to Mosul.
On Tuesday, the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said that Iraq is concerned about developments of the battles in neighboring Syria, which is witnessing the clearing of the last pocket of IS extremist group near the Syrian border with Iraq.
Iraqi security force and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi brigades are deployed on the borderline between Syria and Iraq, which extends to some 600 km in west of the two provinces of Nineveh and Anbar.
The long borderline between the two countries has long been used by insurgent groups and IS militants for logistic support and to carry out cross-border attacks in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
