Haytham al-Shammari, spokesperson for Diyala police, told Rudaw that four ISIS fighters in a white Kia truck opened fire around 9:30 pm on Saturday at a base of security forces in the province’s Muqdadiya district (known as Sharaban in Kurdish), killing two.
“The truck driver was killed and other [ISIS] fighters escaped the scene,” Shammari said.
In December, a deadly ISIS attack in the same district killed 10 civilians and 17 injured.
ISIS rose to power and seized control of swathes of Iraqi territory during a brazen offensive in 2014 but was declared territorially defeated in 2017 when its so-called caliphate in the country fell as Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by a US-led international coalition, claimed back lands lost to the jihadists.
Despite its territorial defeat, the group has continued to pose a serious security threat to the country through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions in several provinces, particularly in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad which stretch across the provinces of Salahaddin, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Nineveh.
Iraqi and Kurdish forces frequently launch anti-ISIS operations in the disputed areas.
