TIKRIT, Iraq, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Ten mourners were killed and 14 wounded Thursday in bomb explosions while mourners were burying four people killed earlier in the day by Islamic State militants in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, a local official told Xinhua.
The incident took place in the afternoon when roadside bombs detonated near mourners who gathered at the cemetery of Sdeira al-Suflah, a village in east of the town of Shirqat, some 280 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing 10 of them and wounding 14 others, said Ali Dodah, the mayor of Shirqat.
Earlier in the day, Colonel Mohammed al-Jubouri, head of the media office of Salahudin's provincial police, told Xinhua that IS militants attacked in the morning security outpost at the edge of the village of Sdeira al-Suflah.
The attack sparked heavy clashes with local security forces and villagers who took up their arms to support the security forces in their pursuit of the IS attackers.
However, four villagers were killed and four others wounded in the explosions of several roadside bombs planted by the extremist militants, Jubouri said.
The IS militants apparently used a different tactic in their morning attack, as they withdrew quickly after the attack to attract the villagers and the security forces into the trap of the roadside bombs, Jubouri added.
The attacks came despite repeated operations by Iraqi security forces to clear the areas around Shirqat of the remnants of IS militants.
During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former urban strongholds in Mosul, Salahudin province and Hawijah area in the west of Kirkuk after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas through major anti-IS offensives.
However, many IS remnants have resorted to hideouts in the rugged areas near the rivers of Tigris and Zab, as well as Himreen mountainous areas to continue their almost daily attacks against civilians and Iraqi forces.
On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants. But small groups of IS militants regrouped in the rugged areas and have been carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite the repeated Iraqi military operations to hunt them down.
