Bombs kill one, injure 14 in areas formerly held by ISIS after militias moved into Iraq’s Fallujah

At least one person was killed and 14 wounded when a bus carrying workers at a small oil refinery in northern Iraq was blown up with an improvised explosive device, police said.

The bus was at the Siniya refinery, near Baiji in the predominantly Sunni Saladin governorate, when it was hit, Iraqi police said yesterday.

Meanwhile, three civilians and a policeman were injured when a parked car exploded in a market area of Fallujah in the western Anbar province, security sources said. No group claimed responsibility for either attack, but ISIS is active in both areas.

Iraqi forces declared victory over the terrorist group in December after retaking all the territory it held in a fouryear war, but ISIS militants are waging a guerrilla-style insurgency.

Despite this, UN casualty figures for Iraq are at their lowest level this year since they began monthly publication in 2012.

An estimated 75 Iraqis were killed and 179 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in September, the UN said.

Security sources said that the attack in Fallujah was the first since Iraqi forces retook the city from the militants in 2016.

It came after the Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella network of mostly Shiite militias, started operating within the city, residents and tribal leaders said.

Its fighters had been stationed at checkpoints around Fallujah and in the surrounding province but had not entered the city proper before.