adminBAGHDAD — The hardline Sunni militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing yesterday morning in central Baghdad that police said killed three people and wounded 27.
The blast occurred near a gathering of workers in Tayaran Square, about a kilometre from a sit-in held by supporters of influential Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to demand political reforms.
Islamic State, which claimed responsibility in an online statement, also claimed a suicide bombing last Friday that killed 26 people at an amateur soccer game in Iskandariya, south of Baghdad.
At least 60 people were killed earlier this month in an attack further south, in Hilla, when an explosives-laden fuel tanker slammed into an Iraqi security checkpoint.
An apparent escalation of bombings targeting areas outside Islamic State’s primary control in northern and western Iraq suggests that Iraqi government forces may be stretched thin after recent gains against the group.
Analysts in Europe have interpreted recent attacks there, such as last week’s bombings in Brussels or the killings in Paris last November, as a sign that Islamic State was expanding its field of action in response to setbacks in Iraq and Syria.
But Baghdad analysts say the group has long staged indiscriminate suicide bombings and see these attacks as a continuation of that tactic.
Meanwhile, regime troops were locked in heavy fighting yesterday with the Islamic State group in central Syria, where they dealt the jihadists a major blow by seizing the ancient city of Palmyra.
Just two days after seizing Palmyra from IS, pro-government fighters advanced southwest towards the jihadist-held town of Al-Qaryatain, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Backed by “intense” air strikes by both Syrian and Russian warplanes, they captured a series of strategic hilltops overlooking the town, said the Britain-based monitor.
According to the Observatory, around 500 civilians are still living in Al-Qaryatain.
State news agency SANA said the army, backed by pro-government militia, had also seized rural farmland south of Al-Qaryatain as they closed in on the town.
IS had seized the strategic town in August 2015, kidnapping at least 230 people, including dozens of Christians, and razing its famed Mar Elian monastery.
The town lies on a key road linking Palmyra with the Qalamun region of Damascus province to the west.
Sunday’s capture of Palmyra, known as the “Pearl of the Desert” for its colonnaded alleyways and stunning temples, was seen as a the biggest blow so far in the war against IS in Syria.
Syria’s government has hailed the victory as proof of its credentials in the anti-IS fight.
Yesterday, Defence Minister Fahed Jassem al-Freij said the armed forces would push their offensive against IS to secure a “final victory” over the jihadists, state news agency SANA reported.— AFP.
derick.khumalo