Eurasia Press & News
Iraqi security forces announced on Thursday that they had seized dozens of explosive devices and destroyed two caves and Islamic State sites northwest of the disputed Kirkuk province.
An Iraqi military statement said the security forces carried out “inspections” in the Mama mountain range, including the villages of Kubaiba, Mzirir, and Mansuriya.
The operations were meant “to purify the area of terrorist elements and arrest the wanted” within the Dibis district, located in northwestern Kirkuk.
According to the security media cell, security forces found 32 explosive devices that belong to Islamic State remnants, adding that a bomb squad defused the explosives.
Two caves and three Islamic State sleeper cell hideouts were also found in the same area and “destroyed,” it added.
Elsewhere, the Islamic State launched an attack early Thursday against an Iraqi border police headquarters at the Iraq-Syria border, killing two people and wounding two others.
Iraq’s security media cell said in a statement that “terrorist elements” attacked “the third regiment in the fourth border police brigade within the Iraqi-Syrian borders, which resulted in the death of two associates and the wounding of two others.”
Iraqi security forces also carried out their first military operation since the US-led coalition announced the suspension of operations in Iraq.
The operation was launched in the town of Tarmiyah, located north of Baghdad, which recently witnessed violence linked to the so-called Islamic State.
