New Delhi:
As many as four Iraqi soldiers and three Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Tuesday in a clash in north of the capital Baghdad.
The incident took place when a roadside bomb detonated near an Iraqi army force while conducting a search operation to hunt down IS remnants in al-Tarmiyah area, some 30 km north of Baghdad.
In a statement, the media office of the Joint Operations Command said that the members of the patrol also came under fire from gunmen hiding in nearby fields while being evacuated. “Security forces neutralised and killed three Islamic State militants,” it added.
The media office of the Joint Operations Command further said that the explosion was followed by a heavy clash between the troops and the extremist militants hiding in a nearby orchard. It also confirmed that three IS militants and four soldiers were killed and four others were injured.
The current security situation in Iraq has been improved after Iraqi security forces defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017. However, the extremist group has sleeper cells throughout the country and has been staging guerrilla-style attacks in areas north of Baghdad and in the country's north.
In February this year, the Iraq authorities stated that a US-backed forces extradited 280 Iraqi jihadists. “The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have detained a large number of ISIS fighters of multiple nationalities, including more than 500 Iraqis", the security media office had said in a statement.
(With inputs from PTI)
