Thursday, March 28, 2024

Baghdad

UPDATED: 2 killed, 6 wounded in blasts, north, east and west of Baghdad

 UPDATED: 2 killed, 6 wounded in blasts, north, east and west of Baghdad

Aftermath of an explosion in Baghdad (representational photo).

Aftermath of an explosion in Baghdad (representational photo).
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two civilians were killed and 6 others were in three blasts that rocked areas north, east and west of Baghdadw, security sources said.

Alghad Press quoted the source as saying that an employee at the Iraqi electricity ministry died immediately when a bomb implanted beneath his private vehicle exploded in Abu Gharib in western Baghdad on Wednesday,

A second IED placed near a popular market in al-Shaab region, north of the capital, also wounded two civilians, sources told Alsumaria News.

Another civilian died east of Baghdad and four others were wounded when a bomb planted on the side of a road in Jisr Diyala region went off, Alsumaria News reported.

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 Wednesday bombing, but IS militants have said they had been responsible for several bloody explosions that hit the capital in the past months, bringing the governorate’s 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.

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