BAGHDAD, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- A soldier was killed and a total of seven civilians were wounded on Saturday in separate attacks in Iraq, security source said.
In the eastern province of Diyala, an Iraqi army soldier was shot dead by a sniper, who was thought of as a memeber of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in the village of Mekheisa, some 95 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Mohammed Ali al-Saadi from the media office of Diyala's Operations Command told Xinhua.
Despite repeated military operations in Diyala, some IS militants are still hiding in some rugged areas near the border with Iran, and in sprawling areas extending from the western part of the province to the Himreen mountain range in the north of the provincial caital Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad.
In Baghdad, a booby-trapped motorcycle detonated in Shula neighborhood in northwestern the capital, leaving four civilians wounded, an Interior Ministry official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Another booby-trapped motorcycle ripped through al-Baiyaa neighborhood in southern Baghdad, wounding three civilians, the official said.
The security situation in Iraq was dramatically improved after the Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017, but sporadic attacks occurred in the war-ravaged country.
