Dozens dead in spate of attacks by Isis suicide bombers and gunmen in Iraq

At least 51 people have been killed in a spate of attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen in Baghdad and nearby towns, with Islamic State claiming responsibility for three of the assaults.Gunmen detonated suicide vests inside a shopping complex in Baghdad on Monday and a car bomb exploded nearby killing at least 18 people and wounded 40 others. 

Two bombs later went off in the eastern town of Muqdadiya, killing at least 23 people and wounding another 51, security and medical sources said.

Another blast in a southeastern Baghdad suburb killed seven more while earlier in the day three three people were killed when a car bomb went off near a restaurant in Baquba, 65km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Islamic State militants controlling swathes of Iraq’s north and west claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Baghdad mall, Muqdadiya and Baquba in an online statement.

Isis said it had targeted “rejectionists”, its derogatory term for Shia Muslims, and that “worse was to come”.

The IS statement, posted online shortly after the attack, said a car bomb and four IS fighters carried out the attack, targeting an area where many Shiite Muslims are known to gather and warned of “worse” to come.

The Iraqi government last month claimed victory against the hardline Sunni militants in the western city of Ramadi, and has slowly pushed them back in other areas.

A security official in Anbar province on Monday said ground advances backed by US-led coalition air strikes killed about two dozen insurgents and pushed others out of areas near the government-held city of Haditha in Iraq’s northwest.Monday’s bombings left the biggest death toll in three months. Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan blamed “this terrorist group after they suffered heavy losses by the security forces”, without naming Isis.

Seven people, including two policemen, were killed in the car bomb blast near the Jawaher mall in the predominantly Shia district of Baghdad Jadida, police and medical sources said.

Five more people were shot dead by the gunmen storming the mall, and six others were killed when those same assailants detonated their explosive vests, the sources said.

“People started running into the shops to hide, but (the militants) followed them in and opened fire without mercy,” said Hani Fikrat Abdel Hussein, a shop-owner standing amid shattered glass and rubble at the site of the blasts.

Police regained control of the shopping complex, in the east of the city, and a senior security official told state television there were no hostages, rejecting reports that people had been held.

“The security forces are at the scene and managed to recover the wounded. The situation is under control,” Maan added.
As well as the violence meted out by Islamic State, Iraq is also gripped by a sectarian conflict mostly between Shi’ites and Sunnis that has been exacerbated by the rise of the militant group.

At least seven people were killed when a suicide bomber driving a car attacked a commercial street in a southeastern Baghdad suburb on Monday, police and medical sources said.