Four dead in terrorist attacks on Iraqi police convoys

1 / 2
Iraq has denounced Saturday’s violence in the Kurdish region. (Reuters)
2 / 2
Daesh militants have carried out guerrilla-style attacks in the area since their military defeat in Iraq in December 2017. (File/AFP)
Updated 28 January 2019
Follow

Four dead in terrorist attacks on Iraqi police convoys

  • Two died and eight were wounded when a bomb hit a bus carrying police on their way to work near the town of Shirqat
  • Daesh militants have carried out guerrilla-style attacks in the area since their military defeat in Iraq in December 2017

BAGHDAD: Four police officers were killed and 11 injured on Sunday when two police convoys were hit by Daesh roadside bombs in separate attacks in northern Iraq.

Two died and eight were injured when a bomb hit a bus carrying police on their way to work near the town of Shirqat. Another bomb struck a second group of officers on their way to the site of the first explosion, killing two and injuring three.

A medical source at Al-Sharqat’s hospital confirmed a total of four officers were killed.

Daesh’s propaganda agency, Amaq, released a statement claiming the attack.

Al-Sharqat, around 250 kilometers (150 miles) north of Baghdad, was held by Daesh until autumn 2017.

It was one of the last areas recaptured by the government, which announced several months later that it had ousted Daesh from Iraq.

But hit-and-run attacks — particularly assassinations and kidnappings of local officials — still take place and hint at an underground network of Daesh sleeper cells in some of the country’s most remote areas.

On Thursday, a car bomb killed a police officer near Hawija, another former Daesh stronghold.

Daesh have carried out guerrilla hit-and-run attacks in the area since their military defeat in Iraq in December 2017.

(With AFP)


Israel holds 9,500 Palestinian prisoners as of March

Updated 5 sec ago
Follow

Israel holds 9,500 Palestinian prisoners as of March

  • Administrative detainees represent 36 percent of all Palestinians in Israeli prisons

LONDON: Israeli prison authorities held 9,500 prisoners and detainees as of the first week of March, indicating a 2.15 percent increase from February, according to reports from Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.

Currently, there are 73 female prisoners and 350 individuals under the age of 18 detained in the notorious prisons of Megiddo and Ofer.

The number of administrative detainees is 3,442, the highest percentage among those sentenced, arrested, or classified as “unlawful combatants.” They represent 36 percent of all Palestinians in Israeli prisons, where individuals can be indefinitely detained without charge in military detention centers.

There are also 1,249 “unlawful combatants” detained from inside the Gaza Strip after Oct. 7, 2023, as well as those who were detained from Lebanon and Syria.