Bomb blast near Kirkuk kills Iraqi police commander

By Zeynep Tufekci

KIRKUK, Iraq

The commander of a police regiment was killed Tuesday in a bomb attack targeting security forces near Iraq’s Kirkuk province, according to a local police officer.

The attack occurred in the town of Dakuk, south of Kirkuk, on police forces affiliated with the Ittihadiye Police Organization, Kirkuk Security Directorate Colonel Hamid al-Ubeydi told Anadolu Agency.

It was carried out while the security forces were searching the area, Ubeydi said.

Last December, officials in Baghdad declared that the Daesh terrorist group's military presence in Iraq had been all but dismantled after a three-year war.

From time to time, however, Iraqi officials announce operations against Daesh-affiliated "sleeper cells" in certain parts of the country.