Baghdad, Aug 3 (IANS): Four soldiers were killed and one wounded in an attack by the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants in the province of Diyala in eastern Iraq.

The attack occurred late on Tuesday night when IS militants attacked an army convoy outside the village of Kashkool near the town of Qara-Tappa, some 175 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Alaa al-Saadi from the provincial police command told Xinhua.

The attack started with a roadside bomb to stop the convoy and followed by gunfire from machine guns, Xinhua news agency reported quoting al-Saadi.

Over the past months, Iraqi security forces have carried out deadly attacks against IS 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.