ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi security forces said late Thursday that at least one civilian was killed and two others were injured by suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members. The shooting occurred on the Kirkuk-Tikrit highway in northern Iraq.
“A civilian was martyred and two others injured in a live shooting as they were driving a Mercedes vehicles on al-Alm-Kirkuk way,” the Iraqi Security Media Cell said in a statement. Al-Alm is a city located in Saladin province.
Saeed Ali Husseini, head of public relations for the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Northern Front, told Rudaw that his organization, known to Iraqis as the Hashd al-Shaabi, suspects ISIS members to be behind the attack.
“A number of armed people set an ambush on Tikrit-Kirkuk road...at 7pm Thursday evening, opening live fire on a passing vehicle which led to the death of four civilians,” he said, reporting a higher death toll than the Iraqi Security Media Cell’s official statement indicated.
“The armed people are suspected to be affiliated to Daesh. The incident area is a distant place, located in Saladin province. Security forces have arrived there,” added Husseini.
ISIS took control of large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014. Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces supported by the US-led Global Coalition defeated the group in many areas. The group was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017 after losing control of its previously conquered territory, but continues to maintain an active presence in the country.
ISIS sleeper cells have carried out hit-and-run attacks against security forces, abductions of civilians and officials, and bombings in populated areas. They are mostly active in areas that are disputed between the Kurdish and Iraqi governments.
A top Kurdish intelligence official told the BBC on Monday that ISIS militants are now more skilled and more dangerous than al-Qaeda.
"They have better techniques, better tactics and a lot more money at their disposal," said Lahur Talabany, head of Sulaimani-based Zanyari, the intelligence agency of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party. "They are able to buy vehicles, weapons, food supplies and equipment. Technologically they're more savvy. It's more difficult to flush them out. So, they are like al-Qaeda on steroids."
Three members of Iraq’s security forces were killed in two separate attacks in Kirkuk and Salahadin provinces by ISIS on Tuesday.
A series of deadly attacks have also been carried out against Kurdish security forces in the disputed Garmiyan area on the Kurdistan Region’s southern border with Iraq in recent weeks, causing the deaths of several Kurdish Asayesh and Peshmerga soldiers. The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs has deployed forces to the area in response.
