BAGHDAD 

Two members of Iraq’s Federal Police Force were killed early Thursday in a terrorist attack in the northern Kirkuk province, according to a local security source.

Thursday's attack came hours after five federal policemen, including four officers, were killed in a separate bomb attack elsewhere in the same province.

Kirkuk Police Captain Hamed al-Obeidi told Anadolu Agency that the incident had occurred at a Federal Police checkpoint in Kirkuk’s southwestern Al-​​Rashad district.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the Iraqi authorities typically blame such acts of violence on the Daesh terrorist group, which overran roughly one third of the country in mid-2014.

In 2017, the Iraq army, with the help of a U.S.-led military coalition, recovered most if not all of the territory lost to the notorious terrorist group.