Two Iraqi policemen dead as bomb explosion targets police patrol in Kirkuk
Representational photo
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) – Two Iraqi policemen were killed after a bomb exploded while they were inspecting the security situation in Kirkuk, security sources were quoted as saying.
“A bomb exploded today while a police vehicle was on patrol in al-Rashad district, south of Kirkuk,” the sources told Al-Watan Newspaper Wednesday.
According to the sources, the explosion left two security personnel dead.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, is responsible for attacks targeting crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.
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 total of 79 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 99 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in July 2018, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, with 63 civilian casualties (30 killed, 33 injured), followed by Kirkuk (8 killed, 34 injured) and Nineveh (13 killed and 05 injured).