Suspected ISIS double attack kills 4 PMF, including commander, north of Baghdad

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi security sources reported that four members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were killed and another wounded after they were attacked by ISIS militants north of Baghdad.

The incident took place in the Tarmiyah area late on Friday evening and is the latest attack on Iran-backed militias in the area after similar violence that has resulted in dozens of deaths.

Four PMF members were killed by a sniper after an IED explosion, an Iraqi security source told Kurdistan 24. 

The source said the double attack took place in the Thaier al-Oula area.

Among the dead was the deputy commander of a PMF regiment.

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement that the attack also wounded another PMF member, and said the victims were affiliated with the 12th Brigade of the al-Nujaba Movement.

In a separate statement, the Popular Mobilization Forces Information Directorate pledged “to continue their operations in pursuit of ISIS remnants and destruction of their hideouts in Tarmiyah and the surrounding areas.”

Prior to the Islamic month of Muharram and the Ashura holiday, Iraqi security forces began operations in Tarmiyah district to track down ISIS cells and thwart attempts to attack religious processions in Baghdad.

Friday’s attack comes two days after the commemoration of Ashura, one of the most critical events in Shia Islamic tradition across the world, and particularly Iraq, which is home to the holiest of the religious sect's shrines.

The tenth day of the first Islamic month of Muharram is known as Ashura, the date of the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD in which Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, was killed.