Two Iraqi policemen killed in Islamic State attack on Mosul checkpoint
Security forces defend their headquarters against attacks by Islamic State during sand storm in Ramadi. (AP Photo)
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) – Two Iraqi policemen were killed Monday in an Islamic State attack on the group’s previously proclaimed capital Mosul.
Speaking to the Iraqi Basnews website, a security source said that a group of Islamic State militants opened fire at two policemen stationed at a security checkpoint in Badush city, 30 km west of Mosul, leaving them dead.
“The assailants fled the scene into an unknown location after the attack,” the source said.
He added that security forces opened a probe into the incident and moved the dead bodies to the forensic medicine department.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The surge in violence between armed groups and government forces has resulted in over five million internally displaced persons across Iraq and left more than 11 million in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
A report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said that a total of 75 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 179 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in September.
Of the overall figures, 71 ordinary civilians were killed.
Baghdad came on top of the worst affected Governorate, with 101 civilian casualties (31 killed, 70 injured), followed by Anbar (15 killed and 37 injured) and Salahuddin (09 killed and 38 injured).