Suspected IS bombing targets Iraqi troops in Fallujah

A bomb explosion has injured 17 Iraqi soldiers in the western city of Fallujah, local police officer said on Tuesday.

An explosive device detonated as a military force was clearing mines in Naimiyah, south of Fallujah, said Captain Ahmed al-Dulaimi.

Iraqi security and medical sources said some of the injured soldiers were in a serious condition, local media reported.

A security source said the explosive device is likely a remnant of the Islamic State group.

Nuaimiya witnessed some of the fiercest fighting betweem Iraqi forces and the militant group.

Though the jihadi group no longer holds territory in Iraq, sleeper cells are believed to be hiding out in the country's vast desert and scabrous mountains.

On Thursday, Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Force targeted IS holdouts in the northern region of Hamreen, including a media centre that was used by the group for propaganda purposes.

The IS swept across swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, self-proclaiming a "caliphate" that ruled the region with an iron fist.

The group lost its territorial hold on Iraq in late 2017, with US-backed forces wresting its last bastion in Syria from them last month.

Suriviving IS members have gone under cover and carried out sporadic hit-and-run attacks, especially in rural areas of Sunni majority, such as in the provinces of Salaheddin, Kirkuk, Anbar, Diyala and Nineveh.