BAGHDAD (AP) – Islamic State group militants attacked an Iraqi army position in the northern governorate of Kirkuk, killing two military officers and wounding three soldiers, the security media office said on Sunday. Iraqis in a statement.
Iraq’s security media cell said militants belonging to the extremist group targeted the military position in Dibis district on Saturday night with light and medium weapons, but did not provide further details.
The statement said Iraqi authorities held a meeting to investigate the attack.
IS, in a statement released on Saturday evening, claimed responsibility for the attack on its website.
It comes as the Iraqi military has cracked down on IS sleeper cells near the country’s borders for the past month. The Iraqi counter-terrorism service launched airstrikes targeting the group’s positions in the western desert of Anbar province and in the Hamrin mountains near Kirkuk, killing 27 militants.
In recent years, the militant group has targeted Iraqi army positions in Kirkuk governorate. In November 2022, IS militants killed four Iraqi soldiers in the Dibis district of the governorate and took their weapons and communications equipment.
Kirkuk Governor Rakan Saeed al-Jiboury told The Associated Press at the time that the attack occurred in an area divided between the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga forces who are not coordinating their actions. “and (EI) benefits from it”.
ISIS’s territorial control in Iraq and Syria was crushed by a years-long US-backed campaign, but its fighters continued with sleeper cells that killed dozens of Iraqis and Syrians.