Iraq: Militants assassinate local official

Unidentified shooters have assassinated a local official at Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, a security source reported yesterday.

“Gunmen believed to belong to Daesh have assassinated the mayor of the Al-Jisr village – located in the north-eastern part of Diyala – Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Hamdi, near his house, and fled to an unknown destination,” Habib Al-Shammari, a local security official, said.

Al-Shammari added that a Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighter was killed by “a Daesh sniper near Khanaqin district in the north-east of Diyala.”

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In recent days, the Daesh group launched attacks against positions of the PMF and the local security forces. The group still dominates several cells scattered across the country.

In December 2017, the Iraqi government announced the restoration of its entire territory from Daesh, which controlled a third of the country.