Shepherd’s tip leads to IED find near Kirkuk village

KIRKUK — Iraqi security forces moved to dismantle an improvised explosive device on the road between the villages of Hamida and Anana in Daquq district, Kirkuk, on Wednesday after a local shepherd reported it to authorities.

Falah Hassan, an officer with Daquq General Police, told 964media the shepherd spotted the device and immediately alerted security forces. The area was cordoned off while military engineering teams worked to defuse it.

Hassan said the device had been placed inside a jerrycan, with an Islamic State group flag raised nearby. The flag appeared to have been placed recently, he said, and authorities suspect ISIS remnants may be in the area. He said the army and district police would search the surrounding area to check for further devices.

Although Iraq declared victory over ISIS in December 2017, the group continues to operate through sleeper cells, particularly in remote and desert areas. Earlier this month, the Joint Operations Command said F-16 jets had carried out three airstrikes on ISIS hideouts north of Kirkuk, hours after a Counter-Terrorism Service officer was killed during a search of sites hit in earlier raids. On Monday, the service announced the arrest of three terrorism suspects in Anbar and the recovery of an ammunition cache in Diyala.

The find comes as the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS prepares to end its military mission in Iraq on Sept. 30 under a transition agreed by Baghdad and Washington in 2024. Government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said this week that the reasons for the presence of foreign troops had ended, saying the circumstances that brought international forces to Iraq in 2014 “no longer exist.”