Two soldiers were killed and three injured in a bomb attack targeting their military vehicles in northern Iraq, two security sources told AFP on Thursday, blaming the attack on jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group. ).
The attack late Wednesday evening was not immediately claimed. It took place in the vicinity of Dibs, a locality near Kirkuk. “ISIS elements” detonated “two bombs” as two military vehicles passed, before attacking with automatic weapons, an army officer speaking on condition of anonymity said.
According to him, two soldiers were killed and three others injured, a report confirmed by a police source.
The sector of the attack, between Kirkuk, a city held by the federal government, and Erbil, capital of autonomous Kurdistan, is part of these bordering areas disputed by the two entities. Since IS has regularly struck in these areas, the two camps are trying to increase cooperation between their respective forces, in order to avoid any security vacuum benefiting the jihadists.
This attack comes after an ambush in the vicinity of Kirkuk claimed by the IS, which on Sunday killed nine people in the ranks of the federal police.
After a meteoric rise in power in 2014 and the conquest of vast territories in Iraq and neighboring Syria, the IS saw its self-proclaimed “caliphate” crumble under the impact of successive offensives in these two countries.
While Iraq declared victory against IS in 2017, jihadists continue to carry out attacks, most often against security forces.
Exploiting the porous border between Iraq and Syria, the jihadist organization would retain “between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters in these two countries, concentrated mainly in rural areas, mainly Iraqi and Syrian nationals”, underlined a UN report published in summer 2022.
During a meeting with Iraqi security officials on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani asked them to “fully reassess the plans in force and change the military tactics applied in areas where terrorism remains active”, according to a press release. of his services.
Previously he had denounced “mistakes by the security services”, referring to the ambush against the federal police. “There is a clear failure that led to this tragedy, it will be necessary to render accounts.”