The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has uncovered what it calls an Al-Qaeda plot to unleash suicide bomb attacks in Sulaimaniya during the Kurdish new year Newroz celebrations on March 21.

Units of the Kurdistan Regional Government domestic security forces intercepted a vehicle carrying ten explosive-laden vests and other material in the Kifri area, a PUK official told the Turkish Daily News on condition of anonymity.

The vehicle was headed for Sulaimaniya and was on a disused road, he said, adding that the men in the car had set off from the Ramadi area near Baghdad.

A man arrested for carrying the explosives led the security forces to a safe house in Kifri where police detained a woman and several detonators and electronic devices used for making bombs.

The suspects, reportedly belonging to Ansar-al-Islam, an outfit linked to the Al-Qaeda, informed the security forces that the bombs were to be used in suicide attacks in Sulaimaniya on March 21.

A twin suicide bomb attack in Erbil in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq against the PUK and Kurdistan Democracy Party offices a month ago had killed 109 people, including senior KDP officials.