SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — For the last four months, as Kurds and the central government in Baghdad have been busy with their toxic rivalry over the Kurdistan independence referendum and over control of disputed territories, including Kirkuk, the Islamic State (IS) propaganda channels on the messaging app Telegram have been buzzing with reports of dozens of assassination attempts on Iraqi security forces, mainly in the Hawija area in southwestern Kirkuk province.

The litany of assassinations and warnings by some field commanders went generally unnoticed by the government in Baghdad, which is preoccupied with the upcoming elections in May.

The government inertia continued until the afternoon of Feb. 18 when an intelligence unit of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) was ordered to go to Saadouniya village near Hawija, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad. A group of IS militants had laid an ambush for the PMU unit, and within half an hour of the arrival of the unit near the village, the young PMU fighters who were mainly from Basra and unfamiliar with the area were decimated.

A video published on IS Nasher news Telegram channel allegedly of the ambush shows fierce fighting between the PMU fighters and IS militants armed with AK-47 and PKM machine guns and their ubiquitous GoPro camera with a number of vehicles on fire. Two weeks earlier, IS Nasher news released a photo story from Hawija labeled "The Life of a Mujahid" in which around half a dozen IS militants casually gathered around a campfire at night. The underlying message was that the group has a permanent presence in the area.