{"id":24178,"date":"2016-03-27T01:22:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T01:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/isil-suicide-attackers-storm-army-base-in-iraq\/"},"modified":"2016-03-27T01:22:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-27T01:22:09","slug":"isil-suicide-attackers-storm-army-base-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/isil-suicide-attackers-storm-army-base-in-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"ISIL suicide attackers storm army base in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{At least eighteen soldiers killed in blasts and fighting as ISIL steps up suicide attacks on areas outside its control.}<\/p>\n<p>Suicide attackers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have stormed one of the biggest army bases in Iraq and killed at least 18 soldiers, according to a military source.<\/p>\n<p>All 10 ISIL fighters who entered the Ain al-Assad military base in Anbar province on Saturday were killed, the source told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>An Iraqi defence ministry spokesman said that eight of them were killed by soldiers, and that two had managed to blow themselves up.<\/p>\n<p>Ain al-Assad was the second largest American airbase in Iraq after the US-led invasion. At least 300 US military advisers and trainers remain in the base to support Iraqi troops.<\/p>\n<p>The attackers were killed before they reached any facilities under the control of the US military, according to army sources.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They reached some important Iraqi offices inside the base, one of them the telecommunications office, before they were killed,&#8221; Al Jazeera&#8217;s Waleed Ibrahim, reporting from Baghdad, said.<\/p>\n<p>Iraqi forces launched an offensive last week to retake Anbar province. Sixty to 70 percent of the strategically important province remains under the control of ISIL.<\/p>\n<p>Football stadium blast<\/p>\n<p>The attack came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a football stadium in Iskandariya, south of the capital Baghdad, killing at least 30 people and injuring 95 others.<\/p>\n<p>ISIL, also known as ISIS, later claimed responsibility for the attack.<\/p>\n<p>Al Jazeera\u2019s Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said there had been an escalation of suicide bombings in areas outside ISIL&#8217;s control.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;According to Iraqi and US military sources, as ISIL loses the ability to launch large-scale attacks to gain territory, they are focusing on small attacks,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>At least 60 people were killed earlier this month in an attack claimed by the group 80km further south of Baghdad, in Hilla, when an explosives-laden fuel tanker slammed into a government checkpoint.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-11191 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/b4c12b06d76c4b6fbcf8e177ed949457_18.jpg\" alt=\"Ain al-Assad is one of the largest military bases in Iraq \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{At least eighteen soldiers killed in blasts and fighting as ISIL steps up suicide attacks on areas outside its control.} Suicide attackers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have stormed one of the biggest army bases in Iraq and killed at least 18 soldiers, according to a military source. All 10 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24178"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24178"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}