MANSURIYAH, Iraq – Five civilians were killed and three others wounded in an attack by Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Iraq's Diyala province on Thursday after being ambushed. The victims were all from the same family and were ambushed by a group of six ISIS militants after returning from a swim in Lake Hamrin, who stopped their vehicle just outside of Mansuriyah town and opened fire. "This incident is a terrorist attack. Two of my brothers and our uncle along with their children, one of them was five years old and the other seven years old, were killed," Izzadin Ahmed, the brother of the deceased told Rudaw's Hunar Hamid. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after. The jihadist group seized control of swathes of Iraqi land in 2014 but was declared territorially defeated in 2017. However, the group continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. The recent incident after the Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces launched a new joint operation to eliminate ISIS sleeper cells in Makhmour's Mount Qarachogh, an area infamous for ISIS activity. In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted three attacks in Iraq from July 14 to July 20, killing and injuring 13 people.
