Four Iraqi policemen were killed Sunday in two back-to-back bomb blasts at one of their positions north of the capital, near a former Takfiri bastion, local officials and officers said.

“At around 8:00 am, the police officers were taking up their post at the southern entrance of Al-Sharqat,” the town’s mayor, Ali Dodah, told AFP.

“One bomb went off, killing two police officers and wounding eight. An hour and a half later, as reinforcements arrived, a second bomb went off,” Dodah said.

A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the first blast’s toll to AFP and said the second explosion killed two officers and wounded three.

And a medical source at Al-Sharqat’s hospital confirmed a total of four officers were killed.

Al-Sharqat, around 250 kilometers (150 miles) north of Baghdad, was held by the ISIL terror group until autumn 2017.

Source: AFP