BAGHDAD, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Five Islamic State (IS) militants were killed Saturday in two incidents in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, a provincial police source said.
In one incident, three IS militants were killed when two roadside bombs detonated while the militants were trying to plant them on a road near the town of Hawijah, some 60 km southwest of the provincial capital city of Kirkuk, Captain Ahmedal-Obeidi from Hawijah police told Xinhua.
Separately, a federal police force, acting on intelligence reports, raided a village near Kirkuk city, some 250 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and killed two IS militants, along with seizing their weapons, Obeidi said.
During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former urban strongholds in Mosul, Salahudin province and Hawijah area in the southwest of Kirkuk after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas through major anti-IS offensives.
However, many IS remnants have resorted to hideouts in mountainous and rugged areas near the rivers of Tigris and Zab, as well as Himreen mountain range that extends to neighboring Diyala province in eastern Iraq.
On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants. But small groups of IS militants regrouped in the rugged areas and have carried out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite repeated Iraqi military operations to hunt them.
