ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Two improvised explosive devices detonated in separate incidents in Kirkuk province on Saturday, killing and injuring four people, including a civilian, as strings of violence in the area increases.
“A terrorist [attack] using an IED targeted the federal police forces in Saadouniyah village of Kirkuk,” Iraq’s Security Media Cell said in a statement, adding that the blast killed one officer and injured two others.
The statement also said that “another bomb exploded in al-Asriya village in the same province, killing a citizen and wounding a federal police officer.”
Although no group has taken responsibility, Islamic State militants previously controlled these areas and have continued an insurgency after their territorial collapse.
The incidents along with arson fires that have affected many areas throughout the country, especially high in disputed territories, indicate yet another uptick in rates of violence since Iraq declared a military defeat against the Islamic State in December 2017.
On Thursday, security sources said several Islamic State gunmen attacked a village north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing two brothers, wounding a third, and also injuring another family member.
One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Kurdistan 24 on Friday that gunmen from the terror group stormed the village outside the town of al-Nabai, which lies in southern Salahuddin province, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Baghdad.
The incident came just two days after Islamic State members ambushed soldiers from the Iraqi army in the nearby Tarimiya district of Salahuddin, killing at least six, according to the latest numbers, in what is reportedly the deadliest recent attack in the country.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany