Baghdad, Apr 17 (IANS): Two soldiers were killed and two critically injury while defusing a bomb in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala.
"Two soldiers of the engineering corps in the Iraqi army were killed and two others wounded while dismantling an explosive device planted on the outskirts of the town of Qara-Tappa, some 175 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad," the town's Mayor Wasfi al-Tamimi told Xinhua news agency.
Over the past few months, Iraqi security forces have carried out deadly attacks against the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants to crackdown on their intensified activities, Xinhua news agency reported.
The security situation in Iraq has improved after Iraqi forces defeated the IS in 2017. Yet IS remnants have since spread into urban centres, deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.