A blast in western Iraq killed three child shepherds when one of them stepped on a roadside bomb planted by the Islamic State group, as reported by some local officers. The victims were aged between nine and thirteen and were herding sheep when the fatal blast happened on Sunday. The incident took place just north of Al-Baghdadi, about 180 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
“Three children were killed today by a leftover improvised explosive device planted by the Daesh organisation north of Al-Baghdadi,”
said the mayor, Sharhabeel al-Obeidi, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
“They died on the spot. A police unit went to the site of the explosion and brought their bodies to the morgue,”
a local police major said.
Al-Baghdadi lies in Anbar province, which has yet to be fully retaken by the Iraqi security forces and continues to see frequent IS attacks originating from desert areas on the towns and cities that dot the Euphrates River valley.
