Baghdad: Eleven soldiers were killed in an overnight attack by Daesh on a base in eastern Iraq, officials said on Friday, in the group's deadliest operation in the country this year.
The extremist group occupied large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014, declaring itself a new "caliphate" for Muslims, before Baghdad declared victory in late 2017 after a peace national campaign.
But a low-level insurgency by the group has continued, erupting at various points, notably in rural areas north of Baghdad around the city of Kirkuk, and in the eastern provinces of Diyala and Salaheddin.
In another sign of its resilience, Daesh also attacked a Syrian prison on Friday, killing at least 18 Kurdish security forces and prison guards, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Monitor, while at least Lost 16 of his fighters.
A senior military official based in Iraq's Diyala province said "eleven soldiers ... have been killed during a Daesh attack" against a military base.
The source said on condition of anonymity that the attack took place around 2.30 a.m. Friday in the Hawi al-Azeem area.
Muthanna al-Tamimi, the governor of Diyala province, confirmed the death toll, according to the Iraqi News Agency.
But he also targeted the Iraqi army, accusing him of being caught unprepared.
"The base is sturdy. There's a thermal camera, night-vision goggles and a concrete watch-tower," he said.
"The terrorists took advantage of the cold and the negligence of the soldiers," he alleged. The attackers then fled to neighboring Salaheddin province.
'Bad training'
Ever since the Iraqi government declared victory over Daesh in December 2017, the group has waged a campaign that has seen them hit both military and civilian targets.
According to Iraqi analyst Imad Alou, Daesh is "trying to reorganize its fighters and activities in Iraq".
He pointed to "poor training" on the part of Iraqi security forces, a lack of follow-up by officials, as well as disregard for instructions and low temperatures as some of the reasons the group was able to stage the attack.
A UN report last year estimated that there are about 10,000 Daesh fighters active in Iraq and Syria, many of them in Kurdish-controlled areas.
Daesh's presence in Syria is largely in the desert base in the country's east, where the Kurds maintain a semi-autonomous administration that borders Iraq.
On 3 December, Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and three brothers were killed in attacks by Daesh in the northern Iraqi village of Khidir Jija, south of the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil.
Nine more Peshmerga fighters were killed in two other Daesh attacks in Iraq in late November and early December.
The group also claimed to have bombed a market in the city of Sadar, a Shiite suburb of the capital Baghdad, that killed dozens in July last year.
After relying on the support of a US-led military coalition to defeat Daesh in 2017, Iraq must rely on its own forces to fight the group after ending its combat mission last year.
Coalition forces remain in the country, but their capability is limited to a training and advisory role.