A fighter of a paramilitary group was killed and five were injured in separate attacks in the last two days by the extremist militants of Islamic State ISIS in Kirkuk and Diyala
On August 17th early hours, an IED exploded near Naftkhana in Khanaqin northeast of Baquba on the border with Iran. A fighter of Shiite paramilitary PMF was killed and four others were injured, a security official told KirkukNow on the condition of anonymity.
A day earlier in Kirkuk, a pilgrim was injured when two armed militants attacked a group of Shiite pilgrims in Kirkuk near the headquarters of directorate of intelligence and counter terrorism service, part of the Iraqi security forces ISF.
“Lately, Daesh has escalated its moves in the region, mostly targeting the ISF and power transmission towers,” the security source added.
IS militants are regrouping in the rural areas of the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil. They are targeting Iraqi forces and civilians in the suburbs of Diyla, Kirkuk Ninawa and Erbil, leaving tens of casualties and causing material damage to power towers, oil wells, houses, cattle, orchards and vehicles of the villagers.
On August 15th, an oil pipeline transferring crude oil from one of Kirkuk oil wells was blown up early in the morning, yet the fire was controlled and the pipeline to be fixed in few days, a source in North oil company said.
The directorate general for distribution of electricity in Kirkuk called for safeguarding power transmission towers as 177 of it were bombed in the five weeks in the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil which has lately become a top target by Daesh militants regrouping in the war-ravaged region.
The frequent attacks targeting power transmission towers in the baking summer led to complete power shutdown in some areas of Kirkuk, Diyala and Salaheddin provinces with hours of outage in other parts of those three provinces.
Guards were deployed to safeguards the 250 power towers in the province and last week a suspect was arrested while trying to detonate a power tower, a senior official said.
The Iraqi forces in cooperation with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters launched an operation to sweep IS hideouts in Duz Khurmatu south of Kirkuk. The Iraqi army, rapid response units and the Golden Force of the Peshmerga from three directions cleared the mountainous area.
“We started from the north which is hard and mountainous, geographically suitable for Daesh militants to build hideouts,” said Barham Sheikh Ali, commander of the Golden Force.
A 10-meter-long tunnel was found and detonated by TNT explosives. Three hideouts were found.
“We had full information about the tunnel where they have built some rooms and linked to other tunnels. We found military equipment, ammunition, food and other daily needs,” Ali added.
“A group of coalition forces were accompanying us.”
The disputed territories extend from Khanaqin in the east on the border with Iran to the oil rich city of Kirkuk heading to the west of Mosul in Shingal, home to Ezidi ethno-religious minority, on the border with Syria.
