Four police dead in back-to-back bomb blasts in Iraq

Four Iraqi policemen have been killed in two back-to-back bomb blasts north of the capital, officials say, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

“At around 8:00 am, the police officers were taking up their post at the southern entrance of Al-Sharqat,” the town’s mayor, Ali Dodah, tells AFP.

“One bomb went off, killing two police officers and wounding eight. An hour and a half later, as reinforcements arrived, a second bomb went off,” Dodah says.

A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirms the first blast’s toll to AFP and says the second explosion killed two officers and wounded three.

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

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

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

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

— AFP