BAGHDAD, Iraq: An army officer and four soldiers were killed in an attack on their post in central Iraq’s Salaheddin province on Monday, officials said.
The Iraqi Ministry of Defence said the officer and several members of his regiment were killed “while thwarting a terrorist attack”.
“Daesh terrorists launched an attack” on an army post in the village of Mtebija “and killed four soldiers and a regiment commander,” the security source said, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group.
The jihadist group overran large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, declaring its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror.
In 2017, it was defeated in Iraq by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019 it lost the last territory it held in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.
But its remnants continue to carry out deadly attacks and ambushes, especially from remote areas and desert hideouts.
The United Nations said in a report released in January that IS has “3,000 to 5,000 fighters” in Iraq and Syria.
