Eight children, women killed, wounded by IED fleeing Kirkuk

Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Eight children and women were killed on Thursday when a roadside bomb explode don their way out of Islamic State strongholds southwest of Kirkuk, a security source was quoted saying.

Baghdad Today quoted the source saying that two children and a woman were killed, while two women and three children were wounded when a bomb planted on their way out of al-Murra al-Kobra village went off. They were escaping the Islamic State bastion in the town of Hawija, the source said.

Kurdish Peshmerga troops were trying to reach the victims, said the source.

Hawija and other neighboring areas in southwest Kirkuk have been under Islamic State control since 2014, when the group emerged to proclaim an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. The group executed dozens of civilians and security members there, forcing thousands to flee homes.

Local tribal leaders and politicians from Kirkuk have mounted pressure on the Iraqi government to hasten with invading Hawija, suggesting that its people were experiencing a humanitarian crisis under the group’s rule. The Iraqi government declared victory over IS in Mosul, the group’s former capital in Iraq, and the government is expected to aim at other havens in Iraq afterwards, including Hawija.