At least five people have lost their lives and eight others sustained injuries when a truck bomb ripped through a popular market in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh.
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement that the attack took place on Sunday afternoon, when a truck rigged with explosives was detonated at a crowded marketplace in the village of al-Uwaynat near the town of Rabiaa.
Security forces immediately cordoned off the site of the attack, and ambulance workers ferried the wounded to a nearby hospital.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for Sunday’s attack, but such assaults bear the hallmark of those carried out by Daesh Takfiri terrorists.
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the Arab country on December 9, 2017.
On July 10 that year, he had formally declared victory over Daesh in Mosul, which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in Iraq.
In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.
Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 that year.
Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.