Suicide attacks in Iraq claim 29

Edge of Hit retaken

Militants unleashed a wave of suicide attacks across Iraq on Monday, killing at least 29 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

The deadliest attack took place in the southern province of Dhi Qar (also known as Nasiriyah) when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a restaurant that is frequented by Shiite paramilitary militia fighters, killing at least 14 people.

Another 27 people were wounded in the attack on the well-known restaurant, which is located on the main highway that links the capital, Baghdad, with the southern provinces, a police officer said.

Dhi Qar is located about 200 miles (320 kms) southeast of Baghdad.

Bomber

At around the same time, a suicide car bomber set off his explosives-laden vehicle in a commercial area in the oil-rich city of Basra, killing at least five people and wounding 10 others, another police officer said.

Pieces of flesh and debris littered the bloodstained pavement as thick black smoke billowed from the area. The attack also damaged up to 30 cars.

Basra is located about 340 miles (550 kms) southeast of Baghdad.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a security checkpoint in the capital’s northeastern suburb of Sadr al-Qanat, killing six troops and wounding 13 others.

Another suicide car bomber hit a headquarters of paramilitary troops in the town of Mishahda, 20 miles (30 kms) north of Baghdad, killing four troops and wounding 10 others.

Medical officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

The Islamic State group seized much of northern and western in Iraq in the summer of 2014 and established a self-styled Islamic caliphate in the areas of Iraq and Syria under its control, imposing a violent version of Islamic law.

Launched

The Iraqi army, along with pro-government militias, launched an offensive last month aimed at retaking Mosul, the country’s second largest city, which is under IS control. Their progress in villages outside the city has been slowed by roadside bombs and other booby traps.

Iraqi officials said troops on Monday recaptured a key village outside Mosul after days of heavy fighting. Iraqi forces retook the village of al-Nasr, near the Tigris river, after destroying six suicide car bombers that had tried to attack them, Lt Col Mohammed al-Wagaa of the Iraqi army said.

As Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition have advanced against IS on a number of fronts in recent months, extremists have retaliated with a number of large scale bombings targeting civilians.

According to the United Nations figures, at least 1,119 Iraqis were killed and 1,561 were wounded in March, a sharp increase from the previous month, when 670 people were killed and 1,290 wounded. The figures include 575 civilians killed and another 1,196 wounded. The other casualties were Iraqi security forces, including Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga and government-allied militiamen.

Iraqi forces took the northern edge of the Islamic

State-held town of Hit, west of Baghdad, on Sunday in an operation led by the country’s elite counterterrorism forces, military officials said.

The operation to recapture Hit was relaunched last week, but the troops’ progress has been slowed by hundreds of roadside bombs and efforts to safeguard thousands of civilians trapped inside the town.

“We’ve never had a delay like this on one of our targets,” said Gen. Husham al-Jabri of Iraq’s counterterrorism forces. Al-Jabri carefully plotted progress towards Hit on a map in a temporary operations center just south of the city.

The initial push to take Hit was launched last month, but was quickly put on hold when Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pulled forces back to Baghdad after anti-government protests threatened instability in the Iraqi capital.

After the operation resumed, Iraqi forces had to deal with hundreds of roadside bombs laid by IS fighters along the main roads leading in and out of Hit, forcing convoys to veer off into the surrounding desert terrain. Even there, the forces’ advance was repeatedly brought to a standstill by booby-trapped explosives. Progress was further complicated by muddy conditions after days of rainfall.

“The roadside bomb is the only weapon they have left to depend on,” said Ayad Ghazi, a sergeant with one of the leading battalions inching toward the town. Just a few hundred meters ahead of him plumes of orange smoke rose from controlled blasts. He said it took his men 12 hours to travel just three miles (five kms) on Sunday.

While initially used on a limited basis by al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor to the Islamic State group, IS now produces roadside bombs on an industrial scale. IS fighters use these bombs defensively, placing the devices to essentially create mine fields to impede advancing government forces. IS also litters cities and towns with the explosive devices to hinder pursuit of their fleeing fighters.

Iraqi forces have struggled to train and equip enough units to deal with the sheer volume of the bombs.

The US-led coalition said Iraqi forces were in the outskirts of Hit and working to surround the town, seeking to build on recent gains made by government forces with the recapture in February of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province in central Iraq.

Hit, 85 miles (140 kms) west of Baghdad, lies along a supply line linking the extremist group’s fighters in Iraq with those in neighboring Syria. Iraqi military officials say retaking Hit would cut IS supply lines and allow anti-IS forces to link up to the west and north of Baghdad.

Iraqi and coalition officials said that retaking Hit will be a key step before an eventual push on Mosul, the largest Iraqi city held by IS.

An Iraqi Mi-35 helicopter crashed south of Baghdad due to a “technical problem” Monday, security officials said, the latest in a series of military helicopters to go down.

A colonel in Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said an “Mi-35 training helicopter crashed as a result of a technical problem,” but that the crew survived.

The helicopter went down on Monday morning near the city of Kut, south of Baghdad.

Sahib al-Chlaibawi, the head of the Wasit province security committee, confirmed that the helicopter had crashed during a training mission, but no one was killed.

Iraq has lost multiple helicopters to accidents and ground fire in recent years, while others have been damaged.

In February, the Islamic State jihadist group shot down an Iraqi Bell helicopter west of Baghdad, killing at least one person, while an Mi-17 crashed east of Kut due to a technical problem, killing nine.

In October 2014, militants shot down a Bell 407 north of Baghdad, killing two crew, five days after an Mi-35 was shot down in the same area, while jihadists destroyed another helicopter on the ground earlier that year.

An overloaded helicopter crashed after delivering aid to people besieged by IS on Mount Sinjar in August 2014, killing its pilot and injuring passengers, including a member of parliament.

Lieutenant General Hassan Karim Khudayr was killed when a military helicopter crashed north of Baghdad before IS launched a sweeping offensive in June 2014, while Iraq also lost an Mi-17 to a sandstorm in July 2010, a crash that killed five.