News - Middle East: Daesh terrorists have killed at least five people, and wounded six others in an attack in northern Iraq, according to reports citing security sources.

The incident took place near Qara Salem village in Kobri district on Sunday evening, killing four Peshmerga soldiers and a civilian, Reuters news agency said.

In a statement on Sunday, the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs also confirmed the incident and the casualties but did not divulge details about the toll.

One Peshmerga colonel was quoted as saying that the Daesh insurgents used hit-and-run tactics to target their positions in overnight attacks.

“They avoid holding the ground for longer time ... More reinforcement forces were dispatched to the area to prevent further attacks,” he said.

According to an Iraqi military source, the Iraqi security units immediately sent reinforcements to the area to help the Peshmerga forces.

The Luhaiban village in northern Iraq was also attacked and besieged by Daesh terrorists, according to a Reuters report. However, there was no immediate confirmation from Iraqi authorities.

The two villages are in remote territory claimed by the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the government of the autonomous northern Kurdish region in Erbil.

However, it is rare for the terrorist group to attack and control a residential area near a main road, a highway that connects Erbil to the city of Kirkuk.

The incident comes in the wake of a similar attack in northern Iraq on Friday, which killed at least 13 people including three villagers and 10 Kurdish forces.

Nearly a dozen people were also killed in a Daesh attack targeting a bus carrying workers in an oil field in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr on Thursday.

The attacks come as the US military has stationed forces and military equipment in eastern and northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.

Daesh controlled roughly a third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017, including major cities such as Mosul. 

The Iraqi army defeated the Takfiri group in 2017 with the help of popular resistance groups, but its members are still present in areas of northern Iraq and northeastern Syria.

At least 10,000 Daesh terrorists are reportedly still present in Iraq and Syria. Having changed its strategies, the group still poses a threat in several provinces in the region with hit-and-run attacks, kidnappings and roadside bombs.

Source: Press TV