ISIS mortar attack on football field kills 6 in Iraq

The extremist group no longer controls territory but continues to stage sporadic attacks

A man rides a scooter cart along a damaged street in the western part of Iraq's northern city of Mosul on August 10, 2019. Although Mosul was freed from the grip of Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in 2017, tens of thousands of displaced Iraqis native to the city remain dwelling in sprawling displacement camps instead of moving back home to its unlivable ruins. Many of them say they tried returning but were shocked by what they saw. Across Iraq, more than 1.6 million people remain displaced, among them nearly 300,000 from Mosul alone, according to the International Organization for Migration. / AFP / SAFIN HAMED

A man rides a scooter cart along a damaged street in the western part of Iraq's northern city of Mosul on August 10, 2019. AFP

The National

Aug 25, 2019

Police in Iraq say ISIS militants fired mortar rounds at a soccer field near a Shiite shrine on Saturday, killing six civilians and wounding nine others.

The attack occurred in the village of Daquq, in the northern Kirkuk province in Iraq, as people were exercising.

A fighter with the Hashed Al Shaabi militia at a border position in Iraq. AFP

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Police officials confirmed the attack, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The area of the attack, southeast of the city of Kirkuk, is controlled by Iran-supported militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

ISIS, which once ruled a self-styled caliphate sprawling across Iraq and Syria, no longer controls territory in either country but has continued to stage sporadic attacks.

The group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shiite mosque south of the capital Baghdad on Friday, which killed three people and injured 34. After a motorcycle rigged with explosives detonated on a commercial street in the village of Mussayyib, ISIS said it had targeted a "gatherings of Shiites".