Iraqi officials blame Islamic State remnants for series of deadly attacks

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More than a dozen members of Iraq’s security services have been killed in a series of attacks that have rocked the country this week, attacks that government officials blame on Islamic State (IS) remnants.

On Sunday, a bomb attack hit a police truck in the northern province of Kirkuk and was followed by a direct attack with small arms, a federal officer told AFP.

Although no militant group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack, the carnage follows Wednesday’s roadside IED attack outside Baghdad. The attack killed three people.

Iraqi officials are now blaming the tattered remnants of IS that have remained in the country since the group’s main defeat in December 2017.

ISIS first broke into Iraq in 2014 when the group declared a caliphate over large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Three years later, after its defeat by an American-led military coalition supported by local troops, the caliphate was dismantled and power returned to government forces.

Last year, the United Nations (UN) warned that despite major leadership losses, IS remained able to exploit security loopholes and conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism to recruit , organize and execute complex attacks.

Northern Iraq proved particularly difficult for local Iraqi forces to defend. Last month four people were killed in an attack on a military outpost in the area.

The Islamic State once held nearly 35,000 square miles of Iraqi territory and has up to 10,000 troops spread across rural areas of Iraq and Syria, the BBC reports.

For its part, the United States has maintained a skeletal military presence across Iraq since its main withdrawal of forces concluded in late 2021. America still retains about 2,500 troops in Iraq for training and advisory purposes.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sundani called the violence a cowardly terrorist attack, encouraging local forces to be vigilant, inspect roads carefully and not give terrorist elements any opportunity.

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