A 15-year-old girl was killed and four other individuals were severely wounded by two IED explosions planted in farmlands.
At 6:30 this morning (Sunday 16 August 2020), two IEDs exploded near the village of Nwesheen in Riyadh subdistrict of Hawija district, located west of Kirkuk City.
Jawdat Assafi, spokesperson for the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) in Kirkuk, told KirkukNow: “The first bomb exploded as a family was entering their farmland.”
After the first bomb, another exploded in the same field.
A source within the security forces says that villagers in the area (who are armed for their own protection) have recently killed two ISIS militants when they tried to infiltrate the village.
The task of securing the areas around Kirkuk is given to the Iraqi army, PMU and the Federal Police, all of which fall under the Joint Operations Command.
The Interior Ministry’s intelligence apparatus has stated today that they have managed to arrest six “ISIS” militants west of Kirkuk.
In recent months, numerous armed attacks and IED explosions took place in the south and southwest of Kirkuk Province. Security forces have been tasked with imposing curfews and lockdowns as preventive measures to slow down the COVID-19 outbreak.
