Suicide bomber shot dead in western Iraq

By Sulaiman al-Qubaisi

ANBAR, Iraq (AA) – Iraqi forces shot dead a suicide bomber from the Daesh terrorist group in western Iraq on Tuesday, according to a local military officer.

The bomber opened fire on Sunni tribesmen manning a checkpoint in al-Kasara, west of Anbar province, Col. Walid al-Dulaimi told Anadolu Agency.

He said a Sunni tribesman was killed in ensuing clashes with the attacker.

“Security forces and tribesmen besieged the bomber and shot him dead before he detonated his vest,” al-Dulaimi said.

After overrunning vast territories in both Iraq and Syria in mid-2014, Daesh has recently suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the Iraqi military and a U.S.-led coalition.

In August, the group lost Tal Afar in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province. And one month earlier, the city of Mosul -- once the capital of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” -- fell to the army after a nine-month siege.