In one incident, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Lami, the commander of the Army's 29th Brigade of the 7th Infantry Division, was killed while chasing ISIL terrorists in Heet area, some 160 km west of Baghdad, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement, Xinhua reported.
Al-Lami led a force in chasing the ISIL terrorists, who were on the run after an attack on an army checkpoint that killed an officer and wounded two soldiers in Heet area, the JOC said.
In a separate incident, ISIL terrorists opened fire on an Iraqi border guard patrol near the Arar crossing point on the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border, killing a border guard and wounding four others before fleeing into the desert, a border guard officer told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the ISIL across the country late in 2017. However, ISIL remnants have since melted in urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.
Note: Photo from archive
MNA/XINHUA