At least seven policemen have been killed in a bomb and gun attack in northern Iraq.
The attack took place on Sunday near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, about 293 kilometers (182 miles) from the capital, Baghdad.
No group has claimed responsibility for the killings, but officials have blamed Islamic State.
Three Iraqi soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near Baghdad on Wednesday. IS said it planted the bomb.
Sunday’s attack began when a bomb hit a truck carrying police near the village of Chalal al-Matar, officials told JEE News.
The explosion was followed by a “direct attack with small arms”.
“One attacker has been killed and we are looking for others,” the official said, adding that two policemen were also injured in the attack.
An Interior Ministry official in Baghdad confirmed the attack.
IS once controlled 88,000 square kilometers (34,000 sq mi) of territory stretching from eastern Iraq to western Syria and imposed its brutal rule on nearly 8 million people.
But Iraqi forces declared victory over the Islamist group in December 2017, when its troops drove IS militants from the Syrian border region where the Islamists had their last stronghold.
The group was driven from its last stronghold in 2019, but the United Nations warned in July that it remains a persistent threat.
There are an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, mostly based in rural areas and carrying out hit-and-run attacks, ambushes and roadside bombings.
In its report, the UN observed that despite “significant leadership losses”, the group was able to “exploit the security vacuum and conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism to recruit and organize and carry out sophisticated attacks”. Is.
