BAGHDAD, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- A total of five soldiers and paramilitary tribal fighters were killed on Tuesday in two attacks by militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group in the eastern province of Diyala, a provincial police source said.
IS militants opened fire at soldiers in an army base near the town of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, leaving three soldiers killed and another one wounded, the police source Alaa al-Saadi told Xinhua.
The troops exchanged fire with the attackers who fled the scene after the attack, al-Saadi said.
Earlier in the day, al-Saadi reportedly said that two tribal fighters, who are part of the government-backed Hashd Shaabi brigades, were killed and four wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near their vehicle in northeast of the provincial capital Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad.
The paramilitary fighters were on an operation when Iraqi security forces in the morning advanced into rural areas in the northern and eastern parts of the province to hunt down IS militants, according to al-Saadi.
During the past months, IS militants have intensified their attacks on the Iraqi security forces in the province the militants had previously controlled, leaving dozens dead and wounded.
The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces defeated the IS militants in 2017.
However, IS remnants have since melted into urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem
