Kirkuk: army brigadier general, warrant officer killed by explosive at bombed ISIS hideout

KIRKUK — An Iraqi Army brigadier general and a warrant officer were killed Wednesday when an explosive device left by ISIS went off as troops searched a hideout in Kirkuk governorate that Iraqi jets had bombed the day before, the Defense Ministry said.

The ministry named the dead as Brig. Gen. Ahat Yasser Khudair Hussein, commander of the 11th Infantry Division’s Communications Command, and Warrant Officer Mutaz Shahid Abbas, saying they were killed while inspecting a hideout hit by an earlier airstrike in the division’s area of responsibility. Iraqi forces would keep pursuing the remaining ISIS cells, dismantle their hideouts and prevent further attacks, ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Yahya Rasool said.

Two other soldiers were wounded in the blast in Wadi Zghaitun, between Rashad and Daquq, a security source told 964media. The unit had entered the valley in the morning to inspect the site and recover the bodies of two militants killed in Tuesday’s F-16 strike when the device went off, the source said.

The Security Media Cell said on Tuesday that F-16s had carried out three strikes on ISIS hideouts in Wadi Zghaitun, based on intelligence from the Military Intelligence Directorate and coordinated with the aerial reconnaissance and surveillance center at the commander-in-chief’s office. It said the hideouts were destroyed but gave no casualty figures.

Iraqi forces have repeatedly targeted the valley, raiding six suspected hideouts from the air and on the ground on July 20. On Aug. 11, three soldiers, including two officers, were wounded by an explosive device while inspecting sites bombed by Iraqi aircraft in Wadi al-Shay, southwest of Daquq, and in early July a Counter-Terrorism Service officer was killed in a clash with ISIS militants while inspecting raided sites north of Kirkuk.

On Oct. 10, security forces killed a suspected ISIS militant and surrounded three others after an attack on a Federal Police position in Hawija district, the same position where an attack on Oct. 5 killed one police officer and wounded four. Two soldiers were killed on Oct. 4 when an ISIS explosive device went off during a search north of the Anbar town of Rawa.

ISIS lost its territory in Iraq in 2017 but still operates through small cells in rural and remote areas, where Iraqi forces carry out regular intelligence-led raids and airstrikes.