Iraqi police officers killed in Daesh attack

Daesh gunmen in northern Iraq's Kirkuk have blown up a vehicle transporting members of Iraq's federal police before opening fire and killing nine.

It was followed by "a direct attack with small arms" near the village of Shalal al Matar, a federal police officer said on Sunday, on condition of anonymity.

"An assailant has been killed, and we are looking for the others," the officer said.

Two policemen initially reported as being wounded later died, bringing the total killed to nine.

Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the deadliest in Iraq in recent months.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani condemned the violence as a "cowardly terrorist attack."

Security forces should show "vigilance, carefully inspect the roads and not provide any opportunity for terrorist elements," he said.

READ MORE: Daesh attacks kill civilians in Iraq

Over 6,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria

Daesh seized large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014, ruling with brutality before their defeat in late 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by the international coalition.

On Wednesday, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and three others injured when a bomb exploded as their patrol vehicle passed through farmland in Tarmiya, a rural municipality located about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.

There was no immediate claim for the bombing in a known hotspot of Daesh sleeper cells.

Last month a machine gun attack on a remote northern Iraqi military post killed four soldiers near Kirkuk, a military source said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Iraqi security forces continue to carry out counter-terrorism operations against the group, and the deaths of Daesh fighters in airstrikes and raids are regularly announced.

Despite the setbacks, which have left Daesh a shadow of its former self, the group has "maintained its ability to launch attacks at a steady pace," a January report by the United Nations read.

The UN estimates that the group maintains between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters inside Iraq and Syria, exploiting the porous border between the two countries and concentrating mainly in rural areas.

READ MORE: Iraqi forces raid Daesh locations, capture dozens