Another deadly blast north of Baghdad, IS suspected: Security source

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A bomb blast north of Baghdad on Saturday killed and injured three people, according to a security source.

The source told local Iraqi media Alghad Press that the explosion occurred “near a market in the al-Mushahad region in the Tarmiyah district, leaving a citizen killed and two others wounded.”

“Security troops cordoned off the accident scene and conducted investigations,” Alghad Press quoted the source as saying. “The wounded were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, although the source said the Islamic State (IS) might be guilty.

Saturday’s incident is another in a series of recent attacks in Iraq.

In two separate incidents last week, IS extremists killed seven Iraqi border guards in Anbar Province and kidnapped four police officers in Kirkuk.

The border guards were ambushed by IS militants who set up a fake checkpoint in an area on the Iraqi-Syrian border.

In a similar assault last week, the extremist group claimed responsibility for another fake checkpoint attack targeting a bus carrying tourists on the main road between Kirkuk and Baghdad, killing and wounding 35 people.

Such incidents remind of tactics the extremists had adopted in the years before their capture of Mosul and large swaths of territory in Iraq in 2014.

Despite Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s “final victory” announcement over IS last December, the group continues to launch random attacks, bombings, and assassinations in many cities.

Iraqi officials have warned of “sleeper cells” belonging to the extremist organization, which are still active after months of Iraqi forces regaining control of most of the areas IS had occupied in the country.