Key facts
- An Iraqi army brigadier and a soldier were killed by a roadside bomb near Kirkuk on Wednesday.
- Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.
- The bomb targeted an army patrol searching an Islamic State hideout.
- The attack occurred about 80 km south of Kirkuk.
- This is the second attack on Iraqi security forces in the area this month.
A roadside bomb killed an Iraqi army brigadier and a soldier near the northern city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, the military said. The bomb struck an army patrol conducting a search operation at an Islamic State hideout that Iraqi warplanes had targeted a day earlier, about 80 km south of Kirkuk. The attack, which wounded two other soldiers, is the second on Iraqi security forces in the area this month. It follows an October 5 assault claimed by Islamic State militants southwest of Kirkuk, in which one federal policeman was killed and four others wounded. The incident occurred weeks after U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq on September 30. Iraqi officials have expressed concern that Islamic State retains sleeper cells capable of exploiting security gaps.