Landmine blast kills 3 soldiers in northern Iraq

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed by a landmine explosion in northern Iraq on Sunday, according to a local police officer.

A device exploded as a federal police vehicle was passing in al-Shura district, 20 kilometers south of Mosul, Major Abdul-Aziz al-Jabouri told Anadolu Agency.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Al-Jabouri said the scale of attacks in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the provincial capital, had drastically decreased.

"Some Daesh cells, however, are still operating in the area, particularly in desert areas," he said.

Daesh has recently suffered a string of watershed military defeats.

Last month, the group was driven from Tal Afar in Iraq's northern Nineveh province. And one month earlier, the city of Mosul -- once the capital of Daesh's self-proclaimed "caliphate" -- fell to the army after a nine-month siege.