Islamic State used three vehicle bombs to breach the perimeter of a state-run gas plant in Baghdad’s northern outskirts on Sunday, killing at least 11 people.
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When additional Iraqi forces massed at the gate for an attack, “our brothers detonated a vehicle bomb in the middle of their gathering”, it went on, saying that the militants clashed with security forces and detonated explosive belts among them. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
Brett McGurk, the top U.S. envoy to the coalition battling IS, said meanwhile that the increase in such attacks showed the jihadists were under pressure in the face of the offensive against it.
Police say the Shaab attack started with a roadside bomb explosion outside the concrete blast walls surrounding the open-air market, followed by a suicide bomber who blew himself up as people gathered to help the victims of the first explosion.
Officials say militants have attacked a state-run natural gas plant outside the Iraqi capital, killing at least 11 people.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, three separate bomb attacks targeted commercial areas, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 28 others, police added.
New estimates by the government show Daesh now controls only 14 percent of Iraqi territory, down from the 40 percent it held in 2014, with top officials vowing to clear the entire Iraqi soil from militants in 2016.
Deputy Oil Minister Hamid Younis said firefighters extinguished fires caused by the explosions, AP reported.
The assault began when three auto bombs exploded at the gate of the plant in Taji, north of the capital.
The assault on Taji came as Islamic State militants are being pushed back along several front lines in Iraq, prompting the Sunni extremists to increasingly turn to insurgency-style attacks to detract from their losses.
Iraq is also in the midst of a political crisis that has gridlocked the country’s government. Parliament has not met for more than two weeks after supporters of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed Baghdad’s highly fortified Green Zone.
Police sources said all the assailants were killed in a battle lasting about three hours, but Shakir al-Essawi, the mayor, told Reuters news agency that security forces were searching for one fighter they suspected was still hiding out. The deadlock has raised concerns about the government’s ability to fight IS.
Around 200 NZDF troops are at Camp Taji, where alongside Australian soldiers they are training local forces.
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Last week alone, bombing killed about 100 people across Iraq: the terrorist group has under control significant territories in northern and western parts of the country, including the second-biggest city Mosul.
