BAGHDAD, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi forces on Wednesday killed two would-be suicide bombers affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) militant group in an ambush in the northern province of Nineveh, the Iraqi army said.
Acting on intelligence reports, a joint force from the provincial police and the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi force destroyed an IS vehicle carrying two suspected suicide bombers near the village of Safawi south of the town of Tal Abtta, some 70 km west of the provincial capital Mosul, Yahya Rasoul, spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operations command, said in a brief statement.
According to Rasoul, one of the two IS would-be suicide bombers was a local leader of the extremist group.
The security situation in Iraq has been improved since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017.
IS remnants, however, have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.
