Three policemen injured as bomb blast targets police patrol in Anbar
Iraqi youth carry a victim of a terrorist attack that targeted a vehicle in Baghdad. File Photo
Anbar (Iraqinews.com) – Three Iraqi cops were injured Wednesday as a bomb blast targeted a police patrol in Anbar, a security source was quoted saying.
“An explosive charge planted by Islamic State militants at Al-Qa’im district in Anbar went off while a police patrol was passing by the area, leaving three security men wounded,” the source told Basnews.
“Security troops cordoned off the blast scene,” the source said, adding that the ambulance carried the injured to a nearby hospital.
On Monday, a member of the Tribal Mobilization Forces was profoundly wounded after a bomb placed under his vehicle exploded, while passing by al-Radwaniyah region, west of Baghdad.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Thousands of IS militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since a government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and a U.S.-led international coalition, was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group.
Since then, forces took back the group’s former capital, Mosul, the town of Tal Afar, Kirkuk’s Hawija, and each of Annah, Rawa and Qaim in Anbar.
The war against IS has displaced nearly five million people, with tens of thousands of civilians and militants killed since the launch of the offensives to recapture occupied cities.