Islamic State at the edge of Baghdad
by Kareem Raheem,
2016-02-29 05:59:56.0
BAGHDAD — Islamic State (IS) militants attacked Iraqi security forces on the western outskirts of Baghdad on Sunday in their largest assault near the capital for months. Two suicide blasts in a mainly Shiite district killed 31 people.
A news agency that supports IS said the militants had launched a "wide attack" in Abu Ghraib, 25km from the centre of Baghdad and next to the international airport.
Suicide bombers and gunmen in vehicles and on foot had launched the attack on Abu Ghraib at dawn, seizing positions in a grain silo and a cemetery, and killing at least 17 members of the security forces, officials said. Fighting was still raging at the silo site on Sunday night.
Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition airstrikes have driven IS back recently in western Anbar province and are preparing for an offensive to take back the northern city of Mosul, but the militants are still able to strike in Baghdad and other cities outside their main areas of control.
Also on Sunday, two suicide bombers riding motorcycles had blown themselves up in a crowded cellphone market in the Sadr City district, killing 31 people and wounding more than 60, police and medical sources said. In a statement circulated online, IS said two suicide bombers had killed and wounded "hundreds of polytheist rejectionists", as the ultra-hardline Sunni group refers to Shiite Muslims.
Baghdad-based security analyst Jasim al-Bahadli said the attacks suggested it was premature to declare that IS was losing the initiative in Iraq.
"Government forces must do a better job repelling attacks launched by Daesh. What happened today could be a setback for the security forces," he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
In Abu Ghraib, a curfew had been imposed as a regiment of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces was mobilised to retake the silo and prevent the militants approaching the nearby airport, security officials said.
Army and police sources said on Sunday the militants had attacked from nearby IS-controlled areas of Garma and Falluja, driving Humvees and pick-up trucks fixed with machine guns.
Reuters
Members of Iraqi Shiite Badr Army. Picture: EPA/ALI MOHAMMED
BAGHDAD — Islamic State (IS) militants attacked Iraqi security forces on the western outskirts of Baghdad on Sunday in their largest assault near the capital for months. Two suicide blasts in a mainly Shiite district killed 31 people.
A news agency that supports IS said the militants had launched a "wide attack" in Abu Ghraib, 25km from the centre of Baghdad and next to the international airport.
Suicide bombers and gunmen in vehicles and on foot had launched the attack on Abu Ghraib at dawn, seizing positions in a grain silo and a cemetery, and killing at least 17 members of the security forces, officials said. Fighting was still raging at the silo site on Sunday night.
Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition airstrikes have driven IS back recently in western Anbar province and are preparing for an offensive to take back the northern city of Mosul, but the militants are still able to strike in Baghdad and other cities outside their main areas of control.
Also on Sunday, two suicide bombers riding motorcycles had blown themselves up in a crowded cellphone market in the Sadr City district, killing 31 people and wounding more than 60, police and medical sources said. In a statement circulated online, IS said two suicide bombers had killed and wounded "hundreds of polytheist rejectionists", as the ultra-hardline Sunni group refers to Shiite Muslims.
Baghdad-based security analyst Jasim al-Bahadli said the attacks suggested it was premature to declare that IS was losing the initiative in Iraq.
"Government forces must do a better job repelling attacks launched by Daesh. What happened today could be a setback for the security forces," he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
In Abu Ghraib, a curfew had been imposed as a regiment of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces was mobilised to retake the silo and prevent the militants approaching the nearby airport, security officials said.
Army and police sources said on Sunday the militants had attacked from nearby IS-controlled areas of Garma and Falluja, driving Humvees and pick-up trucks fixed with machine guns.
Reuters
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