An Iraqi officer and four soldiers were killed in two bomb blasts in Kirkuk and Ninewa, while a school in Daquq district of Kirkuk was shut after that teachers found out a bomb stick to its main door early in the morning on Thursday.
Lately, the attacks targeting the Iraqi army and police by roadside bombs has remarkably increased in the disputed territories, pushing the Iraqi government to review its measures.
An intelligence officer and two soldiers were killed, two others were injured when a roadside bomb hit a convoy of the Iraqi army on Wednesday at night in Garaw area of Sargaran sub-district of Dubiz district, a source anonymously told KirkukNow.
Separately, two soldiers were killed and three others wounded in a bomb attack in the Iraqi army's Makhmur district of Nineveh province, the semi-official Iraqi news agency reported Thursday.
Also in Nineveh; Iraqi air forces have killed five fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS in a bombing raid on Mount Sheikh Ibrahim in the northern city of Tala'afar, the spokesman for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Yahya Rassoul, said in a statement.
Last night that a "leader" of the group was among the dead, Rasul said.
The incidents come days after the attack in Riyadh sub-district of Kirkuk when an officer and eight federal policemen were killed in a bomb attack on December 18th.
On December 19th, eight civilians were killed and several others wounded in an attack by ISIS in Khalis, Diyala province, according to a security statement.
Sleeper cells and resistant pockets of IS are regrouping in the rural areas of the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil where neither the Iraqi Security Forces ISF nor those of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region IKR are deployed.
They are posing a high threat by different tactics such as hit-and-run attacks, kidnappings, snipers, IED and roadside bombs targeting the Iraqi forces and civilians.
Two schools were shut in the village of Sinur of Daquq district, south of Kirkuk province, Thursday morning, December 22, 2022, after a bomb was found in the main door.
A teacher in the village, on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, told KirkukNow that one of the teachers saw a bomb at the main door of the school this morning and immediately alerted the security forces.
The two schools operate in the same building, one is a girls' primary school called Runaki School and the other is a secondary school called Shahidan School. Together, they have 198 students.
The teacher said both schools have been suspended until the security forces complete their investigation and ensure the safety of their students. The village of Snur in Daquq has 400 households.
"The bomb attached to the door of the school was a plastic sound bomb," a security source told KirkukNow. Without blaming anyone, he only said that the village had no security problems before and they are investigating the incident.
A plastic sound bomb was attached to the school gate
ISIS took large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Following a series of bloody offensives against it, the armed group lost its territorial control in Iraq and Syria and was effectively defeated in 2017, the Iraqi government declared.
However, having changed its strategies, ISIS still poses a threat in several provinces in Iraq, particularly the disputed territories which ranges from Khanaqin northeast of Baghdad on the border with Iran across the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk up to Shingal (Sinar) district of Ninewa province at the west on the borders with Syria.
Meanwhile, the territorial disputes between Baghdad and Erbil, coupled with a lack of coordination between Kurdish forces and their counterparts in Baghdad, have contributed to a security vacuum that has been increasingly exploited by IS fighters.
The Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, has called for changes in military tactics and plans.
According to a statement issued by the office of the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, Sudan stressed the need to take measures to eradicate the movements of ISIS.
Earlier, Sudani has formed a committee of inquiry into previous security incidents in Kirkuk and Diyala. The high-level security meeting called for changes in military tactics and plans.
