5 killed in truck bomb explosion in Iraq's Nineveh province

BAGHDAD - At least five people were killed and eight others wounded on Sunday when a truck bomb ripped through a popular market at a village in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, the Iraqi military said.

The attack took place in the afternoon when a booby-trapped truck was detonated at a crowded marketplace in the village of al-Uwaynat near the town of Rabiaa near the border with Syria, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but IS militants, in most cases, have been responsible for such attacks targeting security forces and areas where crowds of civilians gather, including markets, cafes and mosques.

The security situation in Iraq was dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017.

IS remnants, however, have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.