BAGHDAD: Unknown gunmen on Tuesday detonated seven power transmission towers in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk, the country's Ministry of Electricity said in a statement.

The attack took place near the town of al-Riyadh in the south of the namesake provincial capital Kirkuk, which itself located some 250 km north of Baghdad, and sabotaged the towers that link Kirkuk to Baiji in the neighboring Salahudin province, the statement said.

"Up to 27 power transmission towers were sabotaged in the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk, and Salahudin within one week," the statement said, adding that technical teams accompanied by the Iraqi security forces have rushed to the scene to repair the towers.

During the past few days, many power transmission towers were vandalized in the provinces of Salahudin, Kirkuk, and Nineveh, as well as in al-Nebai and Tarmiyah areas north of the capital Baghdad, which led to the destruction of towers and power outages in large areas.

The attacks targeting the transmission towers continued. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi asked the army to strengthen the protection of power transmission lines.

Separately, a source from Salahudin's provincial police said that militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group kidnapped two shepherds in Salahudin province in the north of Baghdad.

The incident took place at dawn when IS militants kidnapped the two from a village located east of the provincial capital Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, and took them to their hideouts in Himreen mountain range, Mohammed al-Bazi told Xinhua.

Over the past months, IS militants have intensified attacks on Iraqi security forces in the province the militants previously controlled, leaving dozens dead and wounded.

The security situation in Iraq has been improving since Iraqi security forces defeated the IS militants in 2017.

However, IS remnants have since melted into urban centers or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.