Roadside explosion injures UN staff member in Nineveh Plains

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —  A United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) convoy was impacted by the detonation of an improvised explosive device in the Nineveh Plains on Wednesday, injuring an employee, according to a statement by United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

An earlier statement from the Iraqi Security Media Cell had reported that two employees were injured.

The explosion took place in the village of Shaqoli on the Erbil-Mosul road, according to the cell statement, published by Iraqi state media. 

The blast was confirmed by Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, while addressing the Security Council. 

"In terms of security, conditions for humanitarian actors are also hazardous in certain areas, as was starkly highlighted today by the IED explosion that impacted a World Food Programme convoy in Ninewa," she said of the security situation in Iraq, not mentioning any injuries or casualties.

Rudaw English has reached out to WFP for comment, but has not received a response by the time of publication.

Several other IED explosions have taken place in Iraq in August, including three against companies which have contracts with the Global Coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Baghdad, Diwaniya and Dhi Qar provinces - according to separate statements by Iraq’s security cell.

No one has taken credit for the Wednesday’s convoy attack, but ISIS remnants are commonly active in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.  

ISIS first swept across Iraq in 2014, capturing cities across northern and central Iraq including Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and the capital of Nineveh province.

Although Baghdad declared the territorial defeat of the group in Iraq in December 2017, its remnants have since reverted to insurgency tactics; ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, and extorting money from vulnerable rural populations.