According to the local officials, the bomb, which was placed at the entrance of a shelter used by the ISIL members, was detonated when Iraqi troops conducting an operation near the town of Dibis in the northwest of the province.

There has been an increase in the attacks of ISIL members over the last months, particularly in the area between Kirkuk, Saladin, and Diyala provinces.

The following the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), during which it secured control of Tikrit and nearby areas in Syria, the Iraqi army fled Kirkuk. The Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government then controlled the city.

The Iraqi national army and PMF militia retook control of Kirkuk as the Peshmerga retreated from the city on October 16, 2017. The city had been under Kurdish Peshmerga control since 2014.

The Kurds were promised a referendum to resolve Kirkuk's status under Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution. (ILKHA)