Two soldiers killed by ISIS explosive during desert search

NINEVEH — Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and two wounded on Sunday when an explosive device left by the Islamic State group went off during a search operation in the desert north of Rawa, the Defence Ministry said, four days after the U.S.-led coalition’s mission ended.

The soldiers were from the 7th Infantry Division of the Jazeera Operations Command, and the device exploded in the area of the 27th Infantry Brigade while they were carrying out search and inspection duties, the ministry said. The two wounded were taken to hospital. The army would keep up operations to pursue the group and target its positions, it said.

Leftover devices have repeatedly hit troops clearing ground. On Aug. 11 three soldiers, two of them officers, were wounded when a device went off as they searched sites in Wadi al-Shay, southwest of Daquq, that army aircraft had struck earlier.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi formally declared the end of the coalition’s mission on Sept. 30, saying Iraq now takes full responsibility for its security, and the last U.S. and coalition forces left Erbil Air Base that day. He has since ordered higher readiness and stepped-up intelligence work across the security forces, said Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief. “After 12 years of joint work to confront terrorism, the need for the international coalition forces to remain has ended, beginning a new phase of bilateral cooperation between Iraq and coalition countries on the basis of mutual respect,” Numan said on Friday. Kurdistan Region Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed said last month that Iraqi and Kurdistan Region forces “can be relied upon to fill that vacuum” and urged Baghdad to build bilateral ties with coalition members.

The group seized large parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014 and was territorially defeated in 2017, and has since operated through sleeper cells and small units, particularly in desert and rural areas.