Kurdish MP calls for bolstered security after bombing in Nineveh province
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A lawmaker from Nineveh province on Monday called on Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi to increase security through local forces in areas once under the control of the self-proclaimed Islamic State a day following a blast in the large town of Rabia, on the Syrian border.
Five people were killed and eight others injured in the explosion, which was carried out by a small car parked near a vegetable market, security sources said. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but security forces have laid the blame on the Islamic State.
This attack came a day after fires swept through vast areas of wheat fields, like many other parts of the country, from the outskirts of the Kurdish city of Khanaqin in Diyala province to the east of Iraq to Anbar province in the west. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for many of the fires.
Read More: Thousands of acres of agricultural crops destroyed in fires over past two weeks in Iraq
In a statement, Kurdish MP Sherwan al-Dupardani called on Abdul-Mahdi and the Nineveh’s security chief to “strengthen the presence of security forces in liberated areas, especially [with] local police and empower the people of these areas to contribute to” security.
He described the incident in Rabia as a “cowardly terrorist attack,” demanding concerted “intelligence efforts to pursue [ISIS] sleeper cells that are trying to create instability, especially in the border areas of Nineveh province and prevent the infiltration of terrorists across the border.”
Read More: ISIS bombing kills 5, injures 10 who were extinguishing fire in disputed Kirkuk
Although Iraq announced the military defeat of the Islamic State in December 2017, the terrorist group continues to carry out insurgency-style attacks in formerly liberated areas, like Mosul, as well as places it never controlled, like the nation’s capital of Baghdad.
In March, the terrorist group’s territorial collapse came at the hands of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria. However, their sleeper agents continue to operate similarly and cause instability, crossing between Iraq and Syria due to weak border security.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
