English
At least 51 people have been killed in a spate of attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen in Baghdad and nearby towns, with Islamic State claiming responsibility for three of the assaults.
Gunmen detonated suicide vests inside a shopping complex in Baghdad on Monday and a car bomb exploded nearby killing at least 18 people and wounded 40 others.
Two bombs later went off in the eastern town of Muqdadiya, killing at least 23 people and wounding another 51, security and medical sources said.
Another blast in a southeastern Baghdad suburb killed seven more while earlier in the day three three people were killed when a car bomb went off near a restaurant in Baquba, 65km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
Islamic State militants controlling swathes of Iraq’s north and west claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Baghdad mall, Muqdadiya and Baquba in an online statement.
Isis said it had targeted “rejectionists”, its derogatory term for Shia Muslims, and that “worse was to come”.
The IS statement, posted online shortly after the attack, said a car bomb and four IS fighters carried out the attack, targeting an area where many Shiite Muslims are known to gather and warned of “worse” to come.
The Iraqi government last month claimed victory against the hardline Sunni militants in the western city of Ramadi, and has slowly pushed them back in other areas.
A security official in Anbar province on Monday said ground advances backed by US-led coalition air strikes killed about two dozen insurgents and pushed others out of areas near the government-held city of Haditha in Iraq’s northwest.
Monday’s bombings left the biggest death toll in three months. Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan blamed “this terrorist group after they suffered heavy losses by the security forces”, without naming Isis.
Seven people, including two policemen, were killed in the car bomb blast near the Jawaher mall in the predominantly Shia district of Baghdad Jadida, police and medical sources said.
Five more people were shot dead by the gunmen storming the mall, and six others were killed when those same assailants detonated their explosive vests, the sources said.
“People started running into the shops to hide, but (the militants) followed them in and opened fire without mercy,” said Hani Fikrat Abdel Hussein, a shop-owner standing amid shattered glass and rubble at the site of the blasts.
Police regained control of the shopping complex, in the east of the city, and a senior security official told state television there were no hostages, rejecting reports that people had been held.
“The security forces are at the scene and managed to recover the wounded. The situation is under control,” Maan added.
As well as the violence meted out by Islamic State, Iraq is also gripped by a sectarian conflict mostly between Shi’ites and Sunnis that has been exacerbated by the rise of the militant group.
At least seven people were killed when a suicide bomber driving a car attacked a commercial street in a southeastern Baghdad suburb on Monday, police and medical sources said.
The blast in the Sunni district of Nahrawan left more than 15 people wounded, the sources added.
Two bombs later exploded in an area frequented by Shia militia fighters in the town of Muqdadiya, another 15km (10 miles) further northeast, security sources said.
At least 23 people were killed and 51 wounded in those blasts. A bomber detonated his suicide vest inside a casino in the town. A car bomb parked outside then went off as medics and civilians gathered at the site of the first blast.
Security officials said they had imposed a curfew for all of Diyala province, where Muqdadiya and Baquba are located.
Parliamentary speaker Salim al-Jabouri, who is from Muqdadiya, said he was in contact with security and political leaders there and warned violence there aimed to “undermine efforts for civil peace”, state TV said in a news flash.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in the Baghdad suburb.
Gunmen stormed into a Baghdad mall on Monday after setting off a car bomb and launching a suicide attack at its entrance, killing at least 18 people and wounding 50 in the city’s mainly Shia east, Iraqi officials said. Islamic State claimed responsibility.
The officials initially described the attack as a hostage situation, estimating that 50 people were trapped inside the complex. But Iraqi forces soon surrounded the building and landed troops on the roof. They clashed with the attackers inside, killing two of them, arresting another four and declaring the standoff over.
At least four police were among those killed in the assault, which lasted around an hour and a half, according to the police and medical officials.
Following the attack, authorities shut down the city’s highly fortified Green Zone, home to a number of foreign embassies and most of the country’s political elite. A number of major roads, shopping malls and bridges around the Iraqi capital were also closed for fear of follow-up attacks.
Also on Monday evening, a car bomb in south-east Baghdad in a crowded market area killed five and wounded 12, according to hospital and police officials.
Islamic State often targets the country’s Shia majority with bombs in crowded marketplaces that are designed to kill large numbers of civilians.
Isis controls much of northern and western Iraq, but suffered a major defeat last month when Iraqi forces drove the extremists out of the western city of Ramadi, capital of the sprawling Anbar province.
The extremists’ rampage across Iraq in the summer of 2014 was halted several miles away from Baghdad, but the group has claimed a number of attacks in the heavily guarded capital since then.
Πηγή: www.theguardian.com