Nine Iraqi police killed in suspected ISIS ambush in Kirkuk

Fire exchanges between the militants and police were reported following the IED explosions. At least one ISIS militant was killed.
The bodies of Iraq's federal police members who were killed in suspected IS attack, are repatriated from Kirkuk airport in northern Iraq, Dec. 18, 2022. (Photo: Marwan Ibrahim/AFP)
The bodies of Iraq's federal police members who were killed in suspected IS attack, are repatriated from Kirkuk airport in northern Iraq, Dec. 18, 2022. (Photo: Marwan Ibrahim/AFP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a suspected ambush by the Islamic State (ISIS), at least nine members of the Iraqi federal police were killed in southern Kirkuk on early Sunday, a police source confirmed to Kurdistan24.

A convoy of the federal police was ambushed in Riyadh district in southern Kirkuk near the village of Safra. An anonymous source reported that numerous improvised explosive devices were allegedly planted by the terror group. 

Fire exchanges between the militants and police were reported following the IED explosions. At least one ISIS militant was killed.

The Iraqi military has deployed reinforcements to the area, which has become a hotbed for the group’s remnants following its territorial defeat in 2017 due to the coordinated efforts by the Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi forces, and international coalition.

At least four Iraqi soldiers were beheaded in an outpost in the same area, which led to the suspension of an intelligence official for negligence.

Warning of increasing ISIS threats, Kurdistan Region officials regularly call on their Iraqi counterparts to increase security cooperation in the disputed territories, where the group has launched several low-level insurgencies against civilian and security targets.

Additional reporting by Kurdistan 24 Kirkuk Correspondent Hemin Dalo