ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – At least two police officers, including Baghdad’s Karkh police chief, were killed and four others were injured in an armed confrontation while attempting to “remove encroachments” in Baghdad, the interior ministry and a security source said, with security forces ramping up security measures to locate and apprehend the perpetrators.

Clashes erupted when a team of security forces tasked with removing encroachments was dispatched to Baghdad’s southern Dora neighborhood, where they were confronted by a number of armed men, leaving two members killed and wounding four, a high-ranking Iraqi security source told The New Region.

The police chief for Baghdad’s western Karkh district - Brigadier General Hisham Mohammed Talaa - and another officer were among the victims, according to the interior ministry.  

“We have directed the formation of an immediate security and intelligence task force to investigate the circumstances of the incident and to work diligently to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” the ministry said.

According to a statement by the Security Media Cell, the Iraqi security forces “imposed a tight cordon around the area and closed its entrances to conduct a large-scale search operation aimed at apprehending the perpetrators.”

One suspect was arrested, while the search operations are ongoing to locate the rest of the perpetrators, according to the statement, adding that further details will be provided later.

It is unclear whether the perpetrators belong to the armed groups or are independent shooters, however the area is known to have high activity of armed groups, with separate shooting incidents having taken place in the past, according to The New Region’s correspondent.