8 security personnel killed in attacks in Iraq’s Kirkuk

By Ali Jawad

BAGHDAD (AA) - At least eight security forces were killed and 12 others injured in attacks in Iraq’s northern Kirkuk province on Saturday, according to a Kurdish security officer.

Captain Serdar Mohamed said suspected Daesh/ISIS militants attacked several security checkpoints on the outskirts of Kirkuk.

“Seven Kurdish Peshmerga personnel were killed and 10 others injured in the attacks,” he told Anadolu Agency.

An Iraqi policeman was also killed and two others were injured in another attack by suspected Daesh/ISIS terrorists on a federal police checkpoint in southern Kirkuk, according to a local police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Iraqi authorities suspect that the Daesh/ISIS terror group was behind the violence.

On Friday, four Iraqi soldiers were killed in a bomb blast targeting a police patrol in Tarmiyah town, north of Baghdad.

In June 2014, the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group captured Mosul, Salahuddin, and Anbar provinces and parts of Diyala and Kirkuk, which have been recaptured from the group in late 2017 by the Iraqi forces with support from a US-led coalition.

The Iraqi army continues to carry out frequent operations against the terror group in these parts where Daesh/ISIS has recently mobilized its sleeper cells in rural areas.

*Ahmed Asmar in Ankara contributed to this report