ISIL suicide bombers kill seven at Samarra power station during morning attack as Iraqi forces plan next assault

Suicide bombers yesterday killed seven people and wounded 12 in an attack on a power plant north of Baghdad.

The attackers wore military uniforms and were armed with grenades when they entered the facility in Samarra, about 100 kilometres north of the capital, said Gen Qassem Al Tamimi, the head of a police unit protecting the vital installations. The attack was claimed by ISIL.

A police officer said one of the bombers detonated his explosives while the other two were shot dead. He said seven people were killed and 12 wounded.

“At 2am we were woken up by shots being fired,” said Abdel Salam Ahmed, a power plant employee who was shot in the legs. “We ran into one of [the militants. Some of us hid while two others kept running towards the exit, shouting ‘we are employees’, but the attackers shot them dead,” he said.

Prefabricated houses where employees were sleeping were destroyed as explosions rang out in the power plant. Several tanker trucks were also damaged. The officer said security reinforcements moved the rest of the employees to safety.

The attack came as Iraqis marked the first day of Eid Al Adha. The extremist group ISIL now holds only two pockets of territory in Iraq after being driven out of most of the areas it seized in 2014.

Haider Al Abadi, the prime minister, announced on Thursday the recapture of Tal Afar town and its surrounding areas, bringing all of Nineveh province under government control.

Iraqi government and paramilitary forces have said their next assault will be to retake the town of Hawija, ISIL’s last urban bastion in the country, in Kirkuk province.