Iraq declared victory over the jihadists of IS in 2017, but remants of the group remain active in Iraq and continue to launch sporadic attacks against the army and police, particularly in remote desert or mountain areas.

At 10:00 am (0700 GMT) on Wednesday, "an intelligence unit... was carrying out a search and reconnaissance mission" in a valley around 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Kirkuk, when it "was ambushed by fighters from the terrorist organisation Daesh", ministry spokesman General Moqdad Miri said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Four soldiers were killed and three suffered "light to moderate wounds", he added.

A security source said a fourth person was lightly wounded in the fighting between the troops and the jihadists.

IS did not immediately claim the attack.

On September 4, two soldiers were killed and four more wounded in a bomb explosion in Kirkuk province.

A few days before, Iraqi and US forces in the west of the country launched a large-scale joint operation against the jihadists.

The IS group overran large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, proclaiming its "caliphate" and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019 lost the last territory it held in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.

A report by United Nations experts published in July estimated there were around 1,500 to 3,000 jihadists remaining in Iraq and Syria.