By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – An Iraqi army source said on Thursday that an intelligence officer was killed and three soldiers injured in a bomb explosion in Iraq northern province of Kirkuk.
Lieutenant Colonel Laith al-Hayali of the Iraqi Army’s 8th Division Intelligence Service was killed and three soldiers injured when an explosive device detonated near their vehicle while moving in a village near the town of Dibis, northwest of the namesake provincial Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, an army officer told to news media.
Iraqi security forces rushed to the scene and evacuated the victims to Kirkuk General Hospital, the source said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, media reported.
The Iraqi official said that sporadic attacks happens despite an improvement in the security situation after the defeat of the extremist militants of the Islamic State group across the country in 2017.
IS fighters carry out sporadic attacks in Kirkuk province, even after the extremists were defeated in Iraq in 2017 and two years later in Syria.
IS had swept over the neighbouring countries in 2014 and set up a “caliphate” in which they brutally imposed their extreme interpretation of Islamic law.
The group has been reduced to small bands of guerillas operating in remote areas but no longer controlling any territory.
Iraqi security forces insist they are capable of tackling IS remnants unassisted, as the group poses no significant threat.
The joint operation by US and Iraqi forces killed 15 IS group fighters in Iraq’s western desert, with seven US troops wounded in the operation, US Central Command said at the time.
UN report released in July found the group’s combined strength in Iraq and Syria had fallen to between 1,500 and 3,000 fighters as a result of “battlefield losses, desertions, and recruitment challenges”.
The report found out that in Iraq, its “activities remain largely contained but the group remains capable of sporadic, impactful attacks.”
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