Two members of Iraq’s Hashd Shaabi paramilitary force have been killed in an attack launched by the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala.

Three other paramilitary members and seven villagers were wounded in the crossfire that occured on Tuesday, when the IS attacked a security outpost in the evening outside a village near the town of Qara-Tappa, some 175 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Hassan al-Jubouri, a lawmaker from the village said, Xinhua news agency reported.

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Some armed villagers also opened fire on the attackers, al-Jubouri said.

A medical source from the Qara-Tappa hospital told Xinhua that the ten wounded people are undergoing treatment.

Also on Tuesday, two soldiers and two civilians, including a Jordanian driver, were wounded when the IS militants raided an army checkpoint on the Baghdad-Amman international road near the town of Rutba, some 390 km west of Baghdad, an Iraqi army source in the province told Xinhua.

Over the past few months, Iraqi security forces have carried out deadly attacks against the extremist militants to crackdown on their intensified activities.

The security situation in Iraq has improved after Iraqi forces defeated the IS in 2017. Yet IS remnants have since melted into urban centres, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.