BAGHDAD: Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded on Wednesday in an ambush by fighters of the militant Islamic State group in Kirkuk province in the north, the interior ministry said.

Iraq declared victory over IS in 2017, but remnants of the group remain active in Iraq and continue to launch sporadic attacks against the army and police, particularly in remote desert or mountain areas.

At 10am on Wednesday, “an intelligence unit... was carrying out a search and reconnaissance mission” in a valley around 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Kirkuk, when it “was ambushed by fighters from the terrorist organisation Daesh”, ministry spokesman General Moqdad Miri said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Four soldiers were killed and three suffered “light to moderate wounds”, he added.

A security source said a fourth person was lightly wounded in the fighting between the troops and the jihadists. IS did not immediately claim the attack.

On Sept 4, two soldiers were killed and four more wounded in a bomb explosion in Kirkuk province.

A few days before, Iraqi and US forces in the west of the country launched a large-scale joint operation against the jihadists.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024