BAGHDAD, May 27 (Xinhua) -- A clash between Islamic State (IS) militants and Iraqi farmers on Monday killed two IS militants and wounded three civilians, a local official told Xinhua.
The clash broke out in the evening in the eastern province of Diyala, when IS militants attacked farmers who were harvesting wheat at the edge of al-Adhaim town in the north of the provincial capital Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, Mohammed al-Obeidi, mayor of the town, told Xinhua.
The extremist militants also set fire to the harvester machine before fleeing the scene, al-Obeidi said.
The extremist IS militants recently pursued a tactic of collecting taxes from farmers or killing them and burning their farms and corps in agricultural areas across the provinces of Salahudin, Nineveh, Diyala and Kirkuk.
The security situation in Iraq was dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017.
IS remnants, however, have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.
