A senior Islamic State bomb expert died Tuesday along with a companion while planting an explosive device in Salahuddin province, like reported by iraqinews.com.
The militant, nicknamed Abu Abdullah, died with a comrade when a bomb they were trying to plant at a road in the town of Shirqat went off, a security source told Alsumaria News.
He was a second-tier leader and a bomb expert at of the most outstanding booby-trapping cells in the extremist group who was involved in recent bombings over the past months, according to the source, who asked not to be named.
Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led military coalition and popular troops, have been battling Islamic State out of Iraqi cities it took over in 2014, most notably Mosul, its biggest stronghold, the half of which was recaptured by security forces on January 24th.
In december 2016, joint government forces said they recaptured several villages in the eastern side of Shirqat. IS still maintains a few pockets in the province, and has carried out a number of bloody attacks against security forces in the recent weeks.
Earlier on Tuesday, security and popular mobilization forces reportedly killed 42 Islamic State extremists after they foiled attacks by the group at Tal Kusaiba and Mutaibija regions.
