South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said on Friday that intelligence on Islamic insurgents' plan to carry out car bomb attacks on South Korean soldiers in Iraq is highly reliable.

"The intelligence is highly trustworthy as we recently obtained it from the Kurdish autonomous government," Yoon was quoted by South Korean national Yonhap News Agency.

Yoon's remarks came after the Office of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced in the previous day that it had received secret information that an Islamic insurgents' group, believed to be from the Sunni faction, is preparing a car bomb attack on the 3,700-strong South Korean "Zaytun" unit in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil around the end of the year.

Some of the terrorists may already have entered the Kurdish-controlled area, the JCS said.

"All outside-barracks activities are currently suspended, but we have no plan to raise our current alert level of 'amber' for now," Yoon said. Zaytun has four alert levels -- green, amber, redand black -- in order with the seriousness of the situation.

South Korea sent troops, mostly non-combatants, to Iraq from this August at the request of the US to help rehabilitation efforts there.

The South Korean contingent is the third largest in the US-led coalition forces, following the US and Britain.

Source: Xinhua