Protesters in disputed area decry security failures

BASHIQA - Residents have taken to the streets to protest chronic security failures near an oil exploration block being developed by ExxonMobil, after a deadly bombing killed 12 people.

On April 26, members of the Shebek ethnic group closed the main road between Mosul and Shaikan, accusing Iraqi security forces of being indifferent to their suffering. Three days earlier, a massive truck bomb exploded in Baybokh village, immediately west of Exxon's Bashiqa block.