An Iraqi army officer was killed and two soldiers injured on Wednesday when a bomb exploded as their patrol vehicle passed through an agricultural area north of Baghdad, a security official said.
The attack, which was not immediately claimed, occurred in the orchards of Tarmiya, a rural municipality located about thirty kilometers north of the capital and where jihadist cells of the Islamic State group ( EI) are still active.
“An army captain was killed and two soldiers injured when a roadside bomb exploded in the Tarmiya area during a patrol,” a security force official told AFP. speaking on condition of anonymity.
In 2017, Iraq declared its military victory against IS, but jihadists remain active in several areas of the country. In Tarmiya, they take advantage of bushes, palm groves and other ditches to hide and launch sporadic attacks, especially against law enforcement.
Iraqi security forces are carrying out counter-terrorism operations and combing the areas where IS is present. They regularly announce the death of dozens of jihadists in airstrikes or raids.
After a meteoric rise in 2014 in Iraq and neighboring Syria and the conquest of vast territories, the IS saw its self-proclaimed “caliphate” overthrown under the blow of successive offensives in these two countries, respectively in 2017 and 2019. .
Despite being routed, IS “maintained its ability to launch attacks at a steady pace”, recognized a UN report published in January 2022.
“Exploiting the porous border” between Iraq and Syria, the jihadist organization would retain “between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters in these two countries, where it forms cells and trains agents”, according to this report.