Militants wearing suicide vests stormed a busy mall in the Iraqi capital Monday as part of apparently coordinated attacks that killed at least 13 people and brought an end to a relative lull in Baghdad’s violence, authorities said.
Advertisement
Iraqi men clean up the damage in front of the al-Jawaher mall in eastern Baghdad the day after a bomb attack on January 12, 2016.
The sequence of the attack, a departure from Islamic State’s usual modus operandi in Baghdad, remained unclear and the statement posted by the jihadis online provided few details.
The prime minister wrote on his Twitter account that the attack was a “desperate attempt” by Daesh militants, after they lost control over the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, which had been occupied by the group since May.
Several others were killed and wounded in separate explosions in Baghdad and Muqdadiyah Monday.
An Iraqi security official said the attackers killed at least 17 people, including five members of the security forces, and that almost 40 were wounded.
Masked militiamen in three SUVs stopped their vehicle in the village of Abu Saida, took the journalists out and shot them dead with Kalashnikov assault rifles, Suhail said.
Helicopters flew overhead as security forces searched the scene and the roads gradually reopened. “The situation is under control”, General Maan said.
According to Iraqi officials, at least 50 others were wounded in the attack that lasted over an hour.
They also blew up seven houses in al-Asiri and set fire to 36 shops in the main market and six Sunni mosques across the town, the sources added.
The Islamic State group is claiming responsibility for the Baghdad mall attack that killed 18 people on Monday.
As medics and civilians gathered at the site of the first blast an explosive-laden auto parked outside the cafe exploded.
Advertisement
Parliamentary speaker Salim al-Jabouri, who is from Muqdadiya, said he was in contact with security and political leaders there and warned violence there aimed to “undermine efforts for civil peace”, state TV said in a news flash.
