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BOMB-EXPLOSION-IRAQ
7 killed in bomb explosion in northern Iraq
BAGHDAD, Jan 17, 2021 (BSS/XINHUA) – Six security members and a civilian were killed on Sunday in a bomb explosion in the west of Nineveh’s provincial capital Mosul, local security and a medic said.
The blast took place in a village located some 100 km west of Mosul when the security members were trying to defuse a bomb believed to have been left behind by militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group while they were in control of the area before 2017, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Jaafar Muhsin, a doctor in the main hospital in the town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, told Xinhua that the hospital received the bodies of five soldiers, an officer, and a civilian, adding two other soldiers were wounded.
The security situation in Iraq has been improved since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS militants across the country late in 2017.
However, sporadic deadly incidents still occur in the war-ravaged country as IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.
BSS/XINHUA/FI/ 1850 hrs