The Hashd media office said on Wednesday that “troops deployed on the Iraqi-Syrian border, west of Mosul, thwarted an infiltration attempt by [ISIS] suicide attackers who tried to sneak into Iraq.”
The group claimed its fighters killed all the militants.
A top Iraqi commander had said earlier this week that Baghdad is working to fortify its watch posts on the Syrian border to prevent any possible ISIS attack or infiltration of Iraqi territory.
Although Iraq declared the defeat of ISIS in December 2017, after a bloody three year war against the militant group in the northwest regions of the country, there have been sporadic confrontations between Iraqi forces and ISIS sleeper cells.
In the latest outbreaks of fighting, Hashd al-Shaabi clashed with ISIS militants southwest of Kirkuk city on Sunday, resulting in the death of 27 Hashd fighters.
The militia had been conducting counter-terrorism operations in the Hawija area for a number of days, targeting reported sleeper cells, it said in a statement on Monday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi vowed to “prosecute and punish the perpetrators,” according to a statement from his office.
The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and Hashd al-Shaabi launched a military operation east of the disputed city of Tuz Khurmatu in early February to clear the area of so-called White Flags, a group thought to be Sunni insurgents and remaining ISIS elements.
After the offensive the ISF claimed it had “removed” ISIS threats from the region.
