Top Hashd al-Sha’abi cmdr., four aides killed in Iraq’s Diyala bomb attack

Rasa - A senior commander of the pro-government Popular Mobilization Units has been killed in a bomb attack in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala as government troops and allied fighters are engaged in joint counter-terrorism operations across the crisis-hit Arab country to flush out the last remnants of the extremist outfit.

News ID: 441802

Date: 30 November 2018 - 14:26

RNA - A provincial security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language Baghdad Today news agency that a high-ranking commander of the 110th Brigade of the voluntary forces – commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi – was killed along with four of his aides on Thursday when a bomb explosion targeted their armored vehicle on the outskirts of the Hamrin Mountains, located 80 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital city of Baqubah.

The source added that security forces have sealed off the site of the blast, and launched an investigation into the incident.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, but it bears the hallmark of attacks carried out by members of the Daesh Takfiri terror group.

Security forces destroy four Daesh hideouts in Kirkuk

Separately, Iraqi security forces have managed to uncover and destroy four Daesh terrorist hideouts in the rural areas of the country’s northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

According to Press TV, the Iraqi Federal Police announced in a statement that the hideouts were destroyed in the villages of Saghira, al-Khani, al-Owaifiyat, and Ghabzou’a.

The statement revealed that munitions were also recovered from the militant positions, without specifying their types.

Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the Arab country on December 9, 2017.

On July 10 that year, he had formally declared victory over Daesh in Mosul, which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in Iraq.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.

Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 last year.

Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.

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