“ISIS gunmen killed two civilians of the district around Zarga Lake in a shooting,” Hussein Ali, head of Tuz Khurmatu police, told Rudaw.
According to Ali, the victims were Sunni Arab fishermen, a 50-year-old father, and his 25-year-old son, who were fishing in a small boat when they were killed.
Last year, to secure the disputed territories that stretch across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala, the Iraqi army and Peshmerga formed joint brigades launching operations targeting ISIS remnants. Land and property disagreements are common in the disputed areas.
In May, two Iraqi airstrikes targeted ISIS hideouts in Tuz Khurmatu’s Palkana mountains, killing at least seven members of the group.
ISIS rose to power and seized control of large swathes of Iraqi territory during a brazen offensive in 2014. However, it 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, reclaimed lands lost to the extremists.
Despite its territorial defeat, the group continues 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.
