Baghdad marketplace blast kills 36 in attack claimed by Islamic State

Updated

A suicide bomber driving a ute loaded with explosives struck a bustling market in Baghdad, killing at least 36 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group hours after French President Francois Hollande arrived in the Iraqi capital.

Key points: The attack follows three blasts over the weekend that killed 29 people

67 people were injured

IS has been targeting areas farther from the Mosul battlefield

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the bomber pretended to be a man seeking to hire day labourers during a press conference with Mr Hollande in the capital.

Once the workers gathered around, he detonated the vehicle.

An online statement distributed by Amaq news agency, which supports IS, said the ultra-hardline Sunni group had targeted a gathering of Shiite Muslims, with 67 people also wounded in the blast.

US-backed Iraqi forces are currently fighting to push IS 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.

The blast in Sadr City hit a square where day labourers typically gather.

"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.

Mr Hollande pledged support for helping displaced Iraqis return to the city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces are waging a massive offensive against IS.

France is part of the American-led coalition formed in 2014 to fight IS after the extremist group seized large areas in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

France has suffered multiple attacks claimed by the extremist group.

Militants target positions away from Mosul battle

Since the drive to recapture Mosul began on October 17, elite forces have retaken a quarter of the city in the biggest ground operation in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Mr Abadi has said the group will be driven out of the country by April.

As clashes continued in and around Mosul on Monday, IS 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 kilometres 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 IS 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 kilometres north of Baghdad, where they executed nine Sunni tribal fighters with shots to the head, police and medical sources said.

Reuters

Topics: terrorism, world-politics, iraq

First posted