Two police killed, two wounded in Fallujah blast

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Two policemen were killed and two others were wounded on Saturday in a suicide bombing that hit the western entrance of Fallujah, Anbar, police service said.

A booby-trapped car driven by a suicide attacker killed and wounded four servicemen in Halabsa, the police department said.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it has been the Islamic State behind all attacks against civilians and security forces since the group took over large areas of Iraq to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate”.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said violence in the country left 19000 casualties in nine months of 2016.

Observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure by government forces on that front and to divert attention from group losses.

While losing Mosul could be the severest blow to the group’s existence in Iraq, some observers believe attacks outside the province prove that the extremist group can still pose a security threat.