IED explosion kills one and injures another in Kirkuk province  

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – One person was killed and another injured on Friday by an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Jawal Bor area in northeastern Kirkuk.

A reliable source from Kirkuk police told Kurdistan24 that the victims were a father and son. The source identified the deceased as Aziz Shahaza Issa and the injured as Mustafa.

The police source also said that they went to the area to pick herbs, and the IED appears to have been planted by ISIS fighters, who have committed several terrorist acts in the past and used the valleys for their operations.

Since ISIS's self-styled caliphate was destroyed by Kurdish, Iraqi, and international forces, it has regrouped in remote parts of the country. It continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks against security forces and civilians.

The Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga forces regularly conduct joint operations with Iraqi forces against ISIS in the so-called "disputed territories" between Erbil and Baghdad, where the group is most active.

ISIS has exploited security gaps along the border of the Kurdistan region of Iraq between Iraqi armed and Kurdish Peshmerga forces to continue attacks and resupply its militants in desert and mountainous areas.

These gaps were created following the Kurdistan Region's 2017 independence referendum after Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed militias of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) pushed the Peshmerga out of the disputed territories. Since then, ISIS has exploited this large security vacuum between the Iraqi and Kurdish armed forces.

Additional reporting by Kurdistan24 reporter in Kirkuk Hemin Dalo