Officials stated that an army officer and four soldiers were killed in an attack on their post in Salaheddin, Iraq’s central province, on Monday.
Iraq’s Ministry of Defence stated, “An officer and several members of his regiment were killed while thwarting a terrorist attack”.
“Daesh terrorists launched an attack on an army post in the village of Mtebija killing four soldiers and the regiment commander”, claimed a security source, referring to the Islamic State group by another name.
In 2014, the terrorist group overran significant swaths of Iraq and nearby Syria, declaring a caliphate and unleashing terror.
It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019, it lost its remaining area in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.
However, its remnants continue to launch lethal hit-and-run strikes and ambushes, particularly from remote areas and desert hideouts.
In a January report, the United Nations stated that IS has between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria.
