DIYALA, Iraq
Seven people were killed and 18 others injured late Tuesday when a car bomb went off near a meeting of local sheikhs in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province, a police source told Anadolu Agency.
According to the source, the bomb targeted a meeting of prominent local sheikhs in the village of Haitham Elewy "who had been discussing the recent abduction of Sheikh Mutlaq al-Turki, a chief of the Al-Nada tribe."
The attack, the source added, "left seven dead and 18 others injured".
The same source went on to note that al-Turki had been abducted earlier Tuesday and still remained unaccounted for.
Iraq has been suffering a security vacuum since June of last year when the Daesh militant group overran the northern city of Mosul, declaring it part of its self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.
