World Bulletin / News Desk

Iraqi helicopter gunships on Thursday foiled an attempted suicide attack by ISIL terrorists near the city of Mosul, according to an Iraqi military source.

“A suicide bomber driving a bomb-laden vehicle tried to target a group of rapid-response personnel in the desert area near the village of Haraj some 80 kilometers southwest of Mosul,” Air Force Brigadier-General Abdul Qader al-Shawwaf said.

"U.S. reconnaissance aircraft spotted the vehicle and gave its coordinates to the Iraqi Air Force, which immediately dispatched helicopter gunships to destroy it," he added.

According to al-Shawwaf, gunships fired three missiles at the vehicle, destroying it instantly and killing everyone aboard.

“ISIL still maintains an armed presence in parts of the desert area of Nineveh province [of which Mosul serves as regional capital],” he said.

He went on to point out that the Iraqi military was still “coordinating closely” with a U.S.-led coalition with the aim of “entirely purging the terrorist presence from all Iraqi territories”.

In August, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that Iraq’s northern Nineveh province had been “entirely liberated” from ISIL.

The terrorist group has recently suffered a string of crushing defeats in both Iraq and Syria after overrunning vast territories in both countries in mid-2014.