BAGHDAD, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iraqi police officer and two of his aides were killed on Wednesday in a roadside bomb explosion in Salahudin province north of the capital Baghdad, the Iraqi military said.
The roadside bomb exploded near a military vehicle in al-Tharthar desert area in the west of the town of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, during a search campaign, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
The explosion resulted in the killing of a commander of a commando regiment of Salahudin province and two of his aides, the statement added.
Meanwhile, Mohammed al-Bazi from Salahudin provincial police confirmed to Xinhua that Mutasim al-Qaisi and two of his aides were killed in the explosion near Baiji.
The attack came as the Islamic State (IS) militants have intensified their attacks on the security 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
