One hundred IS bombs detonated less than one kilometer from Christian town near Mosul

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s Ministry of Defense on Friday revealed it destroyed dozens of bombs planted less than one kilometer away from a disputed town northeast of Mosul.

The Iraqi Ministry of Defense in a statement said its intelligence and military detachments within the Nineveh Operations Command, based on “accurate information,” in a controlled-detonation, destroyed 100 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) planted some 750 meters from the predominantly-Christian town of Bashiqa.

The Islamic State (IS), which held Mosul and its surroundings for nearly three years before its defeat late last year, has called on its followers to continue its onslaught against civilians and Iraqi forces by planting mines and traps and by carrying out an insurgency.

The statement, posted on the Iraqi Ministry of Defense’s official Facebook page, said the bombs were “remnants of the terrorist group,” and that engineers had “eliminated the threat” they posted on site.

IS militants took over Bashiqa, which is famous for its olive cultivation, in mid-2014 as the jihadist group spread across large swaths of territory in northern Iraq. It expelled Christian, Yezidi (Ezidi), and Shabak minorities from the area, conducting mass executions on those it captured.

In early November 2016, Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Bashiqa liberated the Hamdaniya district in the Nineveh Plains, northeast of Mosul, during a massive military operation supported by the US-led international coalition against IS.

Late last year, Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militias took over Bashiqa and other disputed areas in response to the referendum on independence for the Kurdistan Region, which Baghdad opposed.