ISIL jihadists kill 12 in raid on Iraq police trainees

Suicide attackers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group killed at least 12 Iraqi forces Jan. 3 in a brazen attack on police training at a military base, officials said.

A commando of fighters equipped with rifles and suicide vests snuck into Speicher base, near the city of Tikrit, in the middle of the night.

Their target was a large group of police forces from Nineveh, a northern province of which Mosul is the capital, who were undergoing training.

"Under the cover of fog, they broke into Speicher," said Mahmud al-Sorchi, spokesman for the paramilitary force being set up to take back ISIL-held Nineveh.

"Nineveh police managed to kill seven attackers but three were able to detonate their suicide vests," he said, adding that three officers were among the 12 policemen killed.

He also said 20 policemen were wounded in the attack.

Several other security sources in the region confirmed the attack, which was claimed by the ISIL group.

Seven suicide attackers

The jihadist organization said seven suicide attackers managed to enter the huge military base, which lies about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Baghdad.

In a statement posted online, ISIL said its commando reached a center where 1,200 cadets were being trained, sparking clashes that lasted four hours.

Speicher is located in Salaheddin province, which was one of the regions conquered by ISIL when it swept across much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland in June 2014.

The sprawling military base itself was never fully controlled by the jihadists but at the beginning of their offensive they committed one of the conflict's worst atrocities there.

ISIL fighters assisted by local insurgents rounded...