adminThe Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group has claimed responsibility for killing 70 Iraqi soldiers and a policeman in Ameriyat Fallujah, just west of the capital Baghdad. The fighters stormed a compound in the city on Saturday with armoured vehicles. About 22 suicide bombers wearing explosive vests carried out the attacks. The attack began around 4am when at least nine ISIL fighters, including four suicide attackers, infiltrated the town, police sources said. The fighters took up positions in a disused residential complex and exchanged fire with army, police and Sunni tribal fighters charged with holding areas retaken from ISIL.
A police colonel said the attack was aimed at distracting security forces from closing in on Fallujah, which Iraqi forces have ringed for more than six months. 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.
In the latest development, Iraqi forces announced yesterday they foiled an attack aimed at taking control of a gas-cylinder factory in Taji, a town north of Baghdad.
Describing the incident, Brigadier-General Saad Maen, spokesperson for the interior ministry, said: “Iraqi forces, in the early hours of this morning, foiled an attack carried out by a suicide car bomber and followed by six suicide bombers wearing explosives-packed vests who targeted the gas-cylinders factory in Taji town, north of Baghdad.
“Iraqi forces managed to kill and destroy from a distance the suicide car bomber and engage with the six suicide bombers and kill them before they could reach the factory.”
Against this background of deadly bombings, especially in Shia-dominated areas of Baghdad, Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, has blamed the ongoing political crisis for hampering the fight against ISIL.
Abadi’s government has been crippled for weeks since many political parties resisted a cabinet reshuffle aimed at fighting corruption. – AP
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derick.khumalo