An ISIS blast in the oil-rich Kirkuk city of northeastern Iraq reportedly killed at least nine Iraqi federal policemen traveling in a convoy.
A federal police convoy was targeted by a bomb in the village of Safra in the Riyadh area, southwest of Kirkuk, according to two unnamed security sources quoted in Iraqi media on Sunday, December 18.
The federal police commander has been sent to the location for further investigation, according to a statement from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who has ordered a hunt for the “terrorist elements” behind the attack.
The bomb explosion gravely injured two additional police officers, and the shooting was carried out by the terrorist group Daesh, according to the Iraqi media.
ISIS took significant portions of Iraqi and Syrian territory beginning in 2014, establishing a barbaric “caliphate,” which it ruled until it was overthrown in late 2017 by Iraqi forces supported by a US-led military coalition.
After a three-year military counterterrorism operation that also had the backing of Iran, Iraq claimed victory over ISIS in December 2017. But the terrorist group’s remnants continue to stage intermittent strikes all over Iraq in an effort to reassemble and commit new acts of violence.
Security forces in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, are still engaged in counterterrorism operations against the organization, and reports of ISIS fighters killed in airstrikes and raids surface frequently in the media.
