Two fighters from the Hashd al-Shaabi, an Iran-dominated coalition of Iraqi paramilitary groups, were killed in an attack blamed on jihadist group Daesh on Sunday, January 7. Daesh forces remain active in Iraq and Syria.
Two pro-Iranian fighters from the Hashd al-Shaabi alliance were killed in an attack in Iraq, the Hashd and an Iraqi security source said on Sunday, blaming the jihadist group Daesh.
The two fighters “succumbed after having been wounded while they were confronting an attack” by Daesh in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, the Hashd said in a statement reported by the official INA news agency.
A security source, who requested anonymity, confirmed the death toll to AFP and said that Daesh attacked a Hashd “(military) post on Saturday night” in the area of al-Zarka in the province’s north.
The Hashd al-Shaabi is a coalition of mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units, mostly from the Shiite branch of Islam, now integrated into the Iraqi armed forces, whose fighters have been heavily involved in the fight against Daesh.
Hours after the attack, the government’s media unit for security affairs said that the army had bombarded the jihadist group’s “hideouts” in adjacent Diyala province, killing five IS fighters.
Daesh jihadists seized swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” which they ruled with brutality before their defeat in late 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition.
However, jihadist cells still stage sporadic attacks on the army and police, especially in rural and remote areas.
A United Nations report published in July said that Daesh has “between 5,000 and 7,000 members across Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, most of whom are fighters.”
Malo Pinatel, with AFP
