In the first incident, IS militants disguised in military uniforms set up a fake checkpoint on the main road in Enjanah area between Iraq’s capital Baghdad and Kirkuk province to stop buses and trucks, killing 2 truck drivers and kidnapping 7 including an army officer. In another incident late Sunday night, IS kidnapped 8 shepherds from their houses in a rural area in northern Shirqat city, 280km north of Baghdad.

During the past few months, hundreds of IS militants fled their former urban strongholds in Mosul, Salahudin province, and Hawaijah area in western Kirkuk, after Iraqi forces cleared these regions during large-scale anti-IS attacks.