June 16, 2017

IRAQ: Female Islamist Suicide Bomber Hiding Explosives Under Full Body Burqa Detonated Inside Busy Marketplace; MURDERED 31, Injuring Dozens Last Friday. Another Similar At Bus Station.

New Straits Times, Malaysia
written by Reuters staff
Saturday June 10, 2017

HILLA: A woman suicide bomber killed at least 31 people and wounded 35 in a crowded market in the town of Musayab, 80km south of Baghdad on Friday, security sources said.

Islamic State claimed the attack, 30km east of the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, as well as a suicide attack at a bus station in central Kerbala around the same time. It did not identify either bomber, in a statement on its Amaq news agency.

Security sources said four people were wounded in the Kerbala bombing, and one security officer said the bomber was also a woman and had hidden the bomb under her full-body veil.

The hardline Sunni Muslim insurgents are on the brink of losing Mosul, their de-facto capital in Iraq, to a US-backed Iraqi offensive launched in October.

The group is also on the backfoot in neighbouring Syria, retreating in the face of a US-backed, Kurdish-led military coalition attacking Raqqa, its capital there.

Iranian-backed paramilitaries are taking part in the campaign against Islamic State in Iraq, attacking the group in the border region near Syria.

Islamic State declared a self-styled "caliphate" over parts of Syria and Iraq three years ago.
The Daily Caller, USA
written by George Congdon
Friday June 9, 2017

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive in a marketplace, killing 22 and injuring dozens more Friday, Al-Jazeera reports.

The incident occurred in Musayyib, a Shiite town located about 40 miles south of Baghdad. This was not the region’s first attack that day. Another bomb had gone off in the nearby city of Karbala just hours earlier, wounding several but yielding no casualties.

Shortly after, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing on its Amaq website. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan has been littered with terrorist attacks in other Iraqi regions.

Two weeks prior, another set of blasts hit the nation’s capital Baghdad, resulting in 27 deaths and hundreds more injured. ISIS also claimed for one of these incidents, this time a car bomb detonated in the district of Karrada.

Iraqi forces continue to go on the offensive fighting the terrorist group, and believe ISIS will soon be defeated after eight months of conflict. According to Iraqi authorities, the suicide bombings are a response to recent military defeats, and are likely to increase until all the Islamic State’s radical militant groups are exterminated from the country.

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