SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Three members of Iraqi forces and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were killed in an ambush north of Baghdad, Iraq’s military said on Saturday.
Iraqi Security Media Cell said in a statement that a roadside bomb hit a vehicle belonging to an Iraqi family in Baiji district on Saturday night.
A sniper opened fire on a rescue team of policemen and state-aligned paramilitary forces when they arrived at the scene, the Iraqi military stated.
It did not say who carried out the attack, but a police source told AFP that the ambush was the work of ISIS militants.
Two police officers and a member of Hashid al-Shaabi were killed, the Iraqi military added. A policeman and a member of paramilitary forces as well as three members of the family were wounded in the attack.
Earlier on Saturday, Mohammed Zidane, the mayor of Zouiya, 50 kilometers from Tikrit city, told AFP that four members of the paramilitary forces and two policemen were killed along with three civilians.
ISIS militants sporadically attack Iraqi security forces and civilians in Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahuddin, Anbar and Nineveh provinces.
The federal government announced victory over Islamic State by the end of 2017 after Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led Coalition regained control of areas once captured by the militant group.
Despite its defeat, ISIS still poses a threat to the security and stability of the country as there are still sleeper cells in Iraq.
