One killed, 4 wounded in bomb blast south of Baghdad

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One civilian was killed and our others were wounded on Sunday when an explosive device went off south of Baghdad, a police source said.

“An IED exploded today at al-Khanasa, al-Madaen district, south of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding four others,” the source told Alsumaria News.

Violence surged in Iraq with the emergence of Islamic State militants who took over large areas of the country in 2014. Baghdad has been witnessing almost daily bombings targeting civilians and security personnel. Nobody has claimed responsibility yet for the Sunday bombing, but IS militants have said they had been responsible for several bloody explosions that hit the capital in the past weeks, bringing the governorate municipal and security officials under critics’ fire.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said violence in the country left 19000 casualties in nine months of 2016.

Observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure by government forces on that front and to divert attention from group losses.

While losing Mosul could be the severest blow to the group’s existence in Iraq, some observers believe attacks outside the province prove that the extremist group can still pose a security threat for all cities.