At least 11 civilians were killed in eastern Iraq when their van was hit by a mine blast and then attacked by a sniper, two security officials said Friday. According to the governor of the province, it was a jihadist attack.
The attack in Diyala province, which took place on Thursday evening, targeted a minibus carrying civilians returning from an election rally organized by a candidate from their tribe, an Interior Ministry official told AFP. The Interior Minister wanted to remain anonymous.
The governor of Diyala province, Mouthana al-Tamimi, condemned “a cowardly operation by the terrorist group Daesh,” referring to the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) organization. On his Facebook page, he called on security forces to “redouble their vigilance against IS sleeper cells.”
At least “eleven people were killed and 17 injured in an attack using an explosive device and subsequent shooting at the crowd” caused by the first explosion in the village of al-Omraniya in the Miqdadiya region, a second security source from the capital Baghdad told AFP .
The head of the Interior Ministry, for his part, assured that a “minibus” was “hit by two homemade bombs on the way back from an election rally.”
“This was followed by a sniper shootout from an unknown location,” the official said, reporting the number of civilians killed and 13 injured.
The IS group did not immediately claim responsibility for that attack in Diyala, a region where jihadist cells are still active.
The attack comes a few weeks before provincial council elections expected on December 18. These bodies enjoy important prerogatives and elect governors.
After a meteoric rise in power and the conquest of vast territories in Iraq and neighboring Syria, IS saw the collapse of its self-proclaimed “caliphate” under the impact of successive offensives in those two countries.
Iraqi authorities declared their “victory” against ISIS in late 2017, but the jihadists continue to sporadically attack army and police personnel, particularly in rural and remote areas outside major cities.
A UN report released this summer stated that “Iraqi forces’ counterterrorism measures continued to result in a reduction in Daesh activities, but the insurgency remained low in intensity.”
According to this report, “Daesh’s main structure persists and continues to number 5,000 to 7,000 members in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, most of whom are fighters.”