Bomb explosion in Salah Al-Din kills an Iraqi army officer, injures four

SALAH AL-DIN — A bomb exploded on a vehicle carrying five Iraqi army officers near Salah Al-Din’s Suleiman Beg subdistrict, killing one officer and injuring four others.

A source from Khurmatu Public Hospital told 964media, “One body and four injured officers were brought to the hospital. The condition of two of the injured is critical, and they have been transferred to Azadi Hospital in Kirkuk.”

The officers were returning from Baghdad to their homes when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. The deceased officer was a resident of Khurmatu and Kurdish, while the others are from Kirkuk, Daquq, and Laylan subdistrict in Kirkuk Governorate.

No group has claimed responsibility yet.

In another attack a week ago, an army officer and four soldiers were killed in an attack on their post in Iraq’s central governorate of Salah Al-Din.

Iraq’s Ministry of Defense reported that Lt. Col. Khaled Naji and several members of his regiment were killed “while thwarting a terrorist attack.”

“Daesh [ISIS] terrorists launched an attack on an army post in Asbaiyat village, located in the plains between Diyala and Salah Al-Din governorates, killing four soldiers and the regiment commander,” said a security source, using an alternate name for the Islamic State group.

In a report published in January, the United Nations estimated that ISIS has “between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters” across Iraq and Syria.

Most recently, on April 16, in a coordinated 10-hour operation involving Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi Army, five ISIS fighters were killed near Salah Al-Din’s Tuz Khurmatu district.