Several killed in Daesh attack on village in Iraq's Diyala province

Gunmen from the Daesh group have attacked a village northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 11 civilians and more than a dozen others, Iraqi security officials said. 

The officials said Tuesday's attack occurred in the predominantly Shia village of al Rashad northeast of Baqouba in Diyala province. 

The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear, but two officials who spoke to The Associated Press said Daesh group militants had kidnapped two villagers earlier and then raided the village when their demands for ransom were not met.

Machine guns were used in the attack, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. They said all the dead and wounded were civilians. 

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Daesh threat remains

Daesh surged to control large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, but its "caliphate" later crumbled under successive attacks.

Iraq declared it defeated in 2017 and the group was smashed in neighbouring Syria in 2019.

But the Daesh threat remains and the group continues to carry out attacks.

A UN report published early this year estimated that around 10,000 Daesh fighters remained active across Iraq and Syria.

In early September, 13 Iraqi federal police officers were killed in an Daesh attack on their checkpoint near northern city Kirkuk.

In July, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a market in a Shia district of Baghdad, Sadr City, in which around 30 people died.

Earlier this month, authorities announced two significant arrests outside Iraq: of the planner of a 2016 IS-claimed attack that killed 320 in Baghdad, and of Daesh's suspected finance chief, Sami Jasim al-Jaburi.

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