Militants shelled anti-terror patrol in Kirkuk

Two Iraqi intelligence officers were killed Wednesday in an armed attack in Kirkuk, a security source told Alsumaria News. “Unidentified gunmen opened fire at two intelligence agents on a road leading to Shoraw neighborhood in Kirkuk, killing them immediately,” the source said.

“A security force carried the bodies to the forensic medicine department and a probe was launched into the incident,” the source added. Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb planted by Islamic State went off at a village south of Kirkuk, leaving two security men, including an officer, dead, Commander of Kirkuk Operations Maj. Gen. Ali Fadel Umran said.

Two other soldiers were wounded in clashes with Islamic State militants immediately after the bombing, Umran said. At least 45 civilians and security personnel were killed in attacks launched by Islamic State militants on Hawija city, Kirkuk, over the past two months, a senior security official said on Tuesday.

“The Iraqi army and police, on the other hand, killed 288 Jihadists and arrested 55 others during the same period,” Middle East Online quoted the official as saying. In October, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared that Iraqi troops recaptured Hawija, a main town held by Islamic State in the country.

The town fell to IS in June 2014, when the militant group seized control of much of northern and western Iraq and proclaimed the creation of a self-styled “caliphate”.

In the same context, The pro-government paramilitary troops have killed four Islamic State militants in Salahuddin province, a security source said on Wednesday. “While a patrol of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) was setting up an ambush at al-Qawshaja region, south of Amerli, in Salahuddin, confrontations occurred in the evening with Islamic State militants,” the source told Baghdad Today.

“The troops managed to kill four IS members and destroyed their vehicle, which urged the rest to run away,” he added. “Reinforcements from the 52 brigade headed to the region to support troops there. They managed to control the situation and follow the militants for long distance south of Amerli,” the source said.

“Two of the PMFs were wounded during the clashes,” according to the source. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced, earlier this month, full liberation of Iraqi lands, declaring end of war against IS members.

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, have been fighting since October 2016 to retake territories Islamic State had occupied. Since then, forces took back the group’s former capital, Mosul, the town of Tal Afar, Kirkuk’s Hawija, and Anbar’s Annah, Rawa and Qaim.

The war against IS has so far displaced at least five million people. Thousands of others fled toward neighboring countries including Syria, Turkey and other European countries, since IS emerged to proclaim its self-styled “caliphate”.

In Baghdad, Three people were wounded on Saturday when a bomb blast hit an area south of Baghdad, a security source was quoted saying. Alghad Press quoted the source saying that three people were injured when an IED placed near commercial stores in al-Bayya went off.

Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Iraqi forces declared victory over the militant group early December.

A total of 117 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 264 injured, excluding police, in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in November, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, with 201 civilian casualties (51 killed, 150 injured). Salahuddin Governorate followed, with 24 killed and 60 injured, and Kirkuk had 12 killed and 28 injured.