The Islamic State group on Sunday claimed an attack near Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad that claimed the lives of 10 people the night before. 

The Salahaddin province, located north of Baghdad that was the site of the attack has declared three-days of mourning. 

Police said that the attackers first hit a civilian car with a roadside bomb late Saturday near Mt. Makhoul, 200 kilometres north Baghdad. 

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The gunmen then opened fire on security personnel when they arrived, killing at least six of them along with four civilians, one of whom succumbed to his wounds overnight. 

The violence increases pressure on the government, which faces criticisms of doing too little in the fight against the Islamic jihadist group, which continues to carry out deadly attacks in the country. 

Two weeks ago, an IS attack killed 11 people at Al-Radwaniyah on Baghdad’s mainly Sunni Muslim outskirts.

The jihadist group has claimed more attacks in Iraq than in any other country between December 2018 and May this year, says the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague.

IS activity in Iraq “accelerated precipitously” from February this year to levels “worryingly close” to those before its 2014 takeover, the centre said in a new study this month.

Iraq’s security forces under Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi have been waging a new campaign to arrest jihadists hiding out in rugged terrain in the country’s north and west.

The security forces have publicly claimed success. Just a day before the latest attack, federal police chief Jaafar al-Batat told state media that the Mt. Makhoul area had been cleared following some “isolated cases” linked to the IS — a comment that has outraged local figures.

“Iraqi security forces just assured us this area had been cleaned,” wrote Mashaan al-Jaboury, a Sunni lawmaker representing Salahaddin, on Twitter after Saturday’s violence.

The tensions come as the US-led coalition which helped Iraq fight IS from 2014, is drawing down its troops.

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This year, the US has already shrunk its contribution to the coalition from 5,200 to some 3,000 troops, as other countries have reduced their numbers as well.

The US announced last week it would withdraw another 500 troops by mid-January, which Iraqi officials say is the fourth and final phase of the coalition’s drawdown.

Iraq’s parliament voted in January to oust all foreign troops, following a US drone strike on Baghdad that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and a leading Iraqi paramilitary commander.

Kadhemi, whose government is seen as US-leaning, has slow-walked the implementation.

Dozens of rocket attacks have meanwhile targeted Western diplomatic and military installations since October 2019.

The US has threatened to close its embassy in Baghdad unless the rocket attacks stop.

Pro-Iran factions have organised a series of rallies in recent months to demand Kadhemi send home the foreign troops.

One sign at a recent protest read, “If you don’t leave on your own, our rockets will force you out!”