BAGHDAD, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Four Islamic State (IS) militants and two paramilitary Hashd Shaabi members were killed on Sunday in two attacks in the Iraqi province of Salahudin, the Hashd Shaabi said.
The paramilitary Saraya al-Salam militia, affiliated with the Hashd Shaabi forces, killed four IS militants in the northeast of the city of Samarra, some 120 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, a Hashd Shaabi statement in a brief said.
As a militia affiliated with the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Saraya al-Salam, or Peace Companies, is deployed in Samarra to protect the Shitte shrines of the two imams Ali al-Hadi and Hassan al-Askari.
Also in Salahudin Province, a roadside bomb exploded on a Hashd Shaabi vehicle during an anti-IS operation in the al-Jazira area in the western part of the province, the Hashd Shaabi said in a separate statement.
The explosion destroyed the vehicle and resulted in the killing of two Hashd Shaabi members and the wounding of four others aboard, the statement said.
The incidents took place as the extremist IS militants have intensified their attacks on the security forces, including Hashd Shaabi forces, and civilians in the formerly IS-controlled Sunni provinces, resulting in the killing and wounding of dozens.
The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS militants across the country late in 2017.
However, IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem
