Five members of Iraqi federal police killed in ISIS attack in Kirkuk

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Five members of Iraqi federal police forces in Kirkuk province were killed and others injured in an Islamic State (ISIS) attack in Daquq district late on Thursday evening, an official from Kirkuk police told Rudaw English on Friday. 

The source said the attack took place at about 11 PM on Thursday evening in the Wadi al-Hamamat area of Daquq district, where ISIS elements launched an attack on a federal police security point. 

Rudaw English has reached out to federal police in Kirkuk but no one was immediately available for comment. 

ISIS responded to the attack on its Telegram channel on Friday, saying their militants killed one soldier and injured another west of Kirkuk late on Thursday by firing at them. They also claimed they destroyed a thermal camera. 

When more police came to the aid of the targeted police station, the ISIS militants set up a "trap" for them by attacking them with rifles and rockets, according to their announcement. The militants also exploded a previously-planted roadside bomb targeting the security forces.

“This led to the destruction of a Hummer vehicle and damaged another one as well as the death of five fighters and the injuries of others,” the militant group said on Telegram. 

In its weekly al-Nabaa newspaper on Thursday, ISIS claimed responsibility for 36 separate attacks in Iraq between June 17 and June 23, including 9 in Kirkuk.

The disputed territories are still a hotspot for ISIS activity. Although the group was territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017, sleeper cells have taken shelter in a security vacuum, void of either Iraqi federal forces or Kurdish Peshmerga.

Earlier in May, three Peshmerga were killed in an ISIS attack in Kirkuk. Later, Iraqi security forces (ISF) launched a large-scale operation from headquarters in Kirkuk amid a recent uptick in ISIS attacks. 

ISIS militants ambush, kidnap and extort both civilians and members of the security forces in the disputed territories, which stretch across several provinces, including Kirkuk, Nineveh, Diyala and Salahaddin.



Updated at 5:29 PM