Diyala explosion kills police officer, wounds 4
An Iraqi officer passing by an explosion site in Baghdad.
A security source told Alghad Press that the car was parked near an automotive agency on a main road in al-Khales region. It exploded once police personnel, suspicious of the vehicle, approached to check it.
Violence surged across Iraq when Islamic State militants occupied several cities in 2014 to establish their so-called “Islamic Caliphate”. In November, the United Nations in Iraq counted at least 58000 deaths since the emergence of IS in 2014 and until September. It said said early December that violence during November claimed the lives of 926 civilians and wounded 930 people.
Iraqi government forces and popular militia, backed by fighter jets from a US-led international coalition, are currently leading a campaign to drive the extremist group out of Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq. But the group still holds other smaller hideouts in the country, using them to launch attacks. Observers believe that almost-daily bombings and armed attacks against civilians and security forces in provinces other than Mosul are aimed at diverting security focus from the Mosul battle and to cover up for the group’s defeats.