BAGHDAD, March 1 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi soldier was killed and four others were wounded on Friday in a bomb explosion north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the Iraqi military said.
The incident took place in the morning when a bomb detonated inside a house under construction within an orchard in the Tarmiyah area, some 40 km north of Baghdad, the Baghdad Operation Command said in a statement, adding the soldiers were conducting a search operation to hunt down Islamic State (IS) militants at the time.
An army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity to Xinhua, said that the search operation targeted a terrorist group that had launched a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the house of a tribal leader in the Tarmiyah area late Thursday.
Although the security situation in Iraq has improved since the defeat of IS in 2017, remnants of the group have dispersed into deserts and rugged terrains, carrying out frequent guerrilla attacks against security forces and civilians. ■
