Reuters-An Islamic State car
bomb killed 24 people in a busy square in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City
district on Monday, and the militants cut a key road north from the
capital to
Mosul, their last major stronghold in the country.
An online statement
distributed by Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, said the
ultra-hardline Sunni group had targeted a gathering of Shi'ite Muslims, whom it
considers apostates. Sixty-seven people were wounded in the blast.
U.S.-backed Iraqi
forces are currently fighting to push Islamic State from the northern city of
Mosul, but are facing fierce resistance. The group has lost most of the
territory it seized in a blitz across northern and western Iraq in 2014.
The recapture of
Mosul would probably spell the end for its self-styled caliphate, but the
militants would still be capable of fighting a guerrilla-style insurgency in
Iraq, and plotting or inspiring attacks on the West.
Three bombs killed
29 people across the capital on Saturday, and an attack near the southern city
of Najaf on Sunday left seven policemen dead.
Monday's blast in
Sadr City hit a square where day laborers typically gather.
Nine of the victims
were women in a passing minibus. Their charred bodies were visible inside the
burnt-out remains of the vehicle. Blood stained the ground nearby.
"The terrorists
will attempt to attack civilians in order to make up for their losses, but we
assure the Iraqi people and the world that we are able to end terrorism and
shorten its life," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told reporters after
meeting with visiting French President Francois Hollande.
ROAD TO MOSUL
Since the drive to
recapture Mosul began on Oct. 17, elite forces have retaken a quarter of the
city in the biggest ground operation in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion
that toppled Saddam Hussein. Abadi has said the group will be driven out of the
country by April.
As clashes continued
in and around Mosul on Monday, Islamic State also targeted military positions
away from the main battlefield, killing at least 16 pro-government fighters and
cutting a strategic road linking the city to Baghdad.
Militants attacked
an army barracks near Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of the capital, killing
four soldiers and wounding 12 people, including Sunni tribal fighters, army and
police sources said.
They seized weapons
there and launched mortars at nearby Shirqat, forcing security forces to impose
a curfew and close schools and offices in the town, according to local
officials and security sources.
Shirqat mayor Ali
Dodah said Islamic State seized three checkpoints on the main road linking
Baiji to Shirqat following the attacks. Shelling in Shirqat had killed at least
two children, he told Reuters by phone.
In a separate
incident, gunmen broke into a village near Udhaim, 90 km (56 miles) north of
Baghdad, where they executed nine Sunni tribal fighters with shots to the head,
police and medical sources said.
At least three
pro-government Shi'ite militia fighters were also killed and seven wounded when
militants attacked their position near Udhaim with mortar rounds and machine
guns, police sources said.
Reuters
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