Shafaq News – Saladin

A joint unit from the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) seized several bombs in Saladin on Saturday.

A security source told Shafaq News that the bombs were prepared for attacks on civilians and security patrols during a sweep on the outskirts of Tuz Khurmatu district.

According to the source, intelligence reports indicated unusual movements by “terrorists” in nearby agricultural areas, prompting the force to conduct a targeted search across secondary routes typically used by extremist cells. The operation uncovered a set of remotely detonated bombs, which engineering teams defused safely with no casualties.

Iraq’s long struggle with improvised explosive devices — a tactic used relentlessly by insurgents since 2003 — resurfaced after parliamentary candidate Safaa al-Mashhadani was killed by a bomb attached to his vehicle in Baghdad’s Tarmiyah district.

The area, a rural belt long identified as a transit zone for ISIS remnants and armed groups, sits on the approach to Saladin, one of Iraq’s disputed areas, claimed by both the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, mainly along the Kurdistan Region’s borders in Kirkuk, Nineveh, Diyala, and Saladin. These territories are ethnically mixed and politically sensitive, with Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen all present.