Authorities accuse ISIS of Iraq attacks that killed 18 people
At least 18 people were killed in overnight attacks in Iraq at the weekend.
Security officials accused ISIS of carrying out the attacks, which included a bombing in the town of Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad.
A roadside bomb detonated as a military convoy passed by and the blast killed two officers and two soldiers, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said.
Iraqi troops who rushed to the area were ambushed by militants, who killed another officer and two more soldiers, it said.
Security sources said a tribal fighter and a civilian were also killed during fighting that raged for hours.
Iraqi security forces have spent weeks battling against ISIS fighters operating in the area.
The group carried out attacks against security forces and tribal troops using bombs and light weapons.
Near the northern city of Kirkuk, militants assaulted positions held by the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, killing six soldiers and wounding several others, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government said.
The attack took place in territory claimed by both the Iraqi government and authorities in the Kurdish region.
Kurdish President Nechervan Barzani said ISIS was responsible for the attacks.
The group took advantage of “security voids in the disputed areas”, he said.
Mr Barzani called for the Peshmerga and Iraqi Army to join forces to protect the territory from ISIS.
Another attack took place in the western desert that borders Syria, a security source said.
“An officer and a soldier were killed in a bomb explosion while an army convoy was en route to Akashat,” he said.
A soldier was killed in a bomb blast in Diyala province, east of Baghdad, another security official said.
Two other fighters were wounded in a separate attack, the official said.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the tactics matched those used by ISIS.
Iraq declared ISIS was defeated in late 2017, after the group was driven out of the country by Iraqi forces and a US-led international coalition.
But ISIS sleeper cells holed up in the country’s mountains and deserts continue to carry out deadly attacks, often at night and in remote areas.
Iraq’s security forces have killed or arrested thousands of militants during operations against the cells.
After the latest attacks, Iraqi President Barham Salih called for “effective international support to eradicate terror across the region”.
The international coalition has been in Iraq since 2014 to help its forces fight against ISIS, but the country’s parliament voted last year for all foreign troops to withdraw from the country.