International

     Five attackers armed with suicide vests, rifles and grenades killed 18 people in the Iraqi oasis town of Ain al-Tamer, southwest of Baghdad, local officials said Monday.
     "They were carrying Kalashnikovs, hand grenades. One of them blew himself up and the others were killed by the security forces," the head of the central Euphrates operations command, Qais Khalaf, said.
     A member of the local council and a source at the provincial health directorate confirmed the death toll in the attack, which took place late on Sunday, and said at least 26 people were also wounded.
     There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but all recent suicide operations in Iraq have been claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.