Islamic State suicide bomber kills dozens at a stadium south of Baghdad
IS claims suicide bombing on stadium in Iraq that killed 29
(about 7 hours later)
BAGHDAD — An Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 41 people who had gathered to watch a soccer match in a stadium south of Baghdad on Friday evening, demonstrating the deadly threat still posed by the group as it is slowly being driven back from the territories it controls.
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber blew himself up in a soccer stadium south of the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing 29 people and wounding 60, security officials said, as the military announced new gains on the ground against the Islamic State group.
The attack in the Babil province town of Iskandariyah came hours after U.S. officials said a top Islamic State commander, an Iraqi known by the nickname Haji Imam, had been killed in an American commando raid, though there was no immediate reason to believe the incidents were linked.
The bombing took place during a match in the small stadium in the city of Iskanderiyah, 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Baghdad, the officials said. Medical officials confirmed the death toll. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
The bomber struck as trophies were being handed out to teams after a tournament, according to local officials.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack via a statement posted online, SITE intelligence group, a monitoring organization, reported.
[Senior Islamic State commander said to be killed in U.S. operation]
IS has been waging a campaign of suicide bombings in and around the capital as Iraqi forces and their allies battle the militants in the north and west of the country.
Iraqi officials put the death toll at 41 and said an additional 105 people were injured. A Babil police spokesman, Col. Muthanna Harith, said preliminary reports suggested 30 people died.
The bombing came as Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rusoul announced that Iraqi troops and Sunni tribal fighters recaptured the town of Kubeisa in western Anbar province from the Islamic State group. A day earlier, IS fighters were pushed out of a string of villages in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province under cover of heavy coalition airstrikes.
Among the dead was the head of the local council, and the injured included two senior local figures in Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the Shiite militias active on the front lines against the Islamic State, according to Falah Abdul Kareem, the head of the local security council. But most of the victims were spectators who were attending the tournament, he said.
Iraqi ground forces are working to build on recent gains in Anbar and prepare for an eventual push on the northern city of Mosul, the largest city held by the militants in the “caliphate” they declared across parts of Iraq and Syria. The U.S.-led coalition estimates that IS has lost 40 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and around 20 percent of its territory in Syria.
In a statement issued by its Amaq News Agency, the Islamic State said the attack targeted a gathering of Shiite militias, known collectively as Hashd al-Shaabi. It did not mention that the blast took place at a soccer match.
Analysts and coalition officials say they expect that as it loses ground on the battlefield, it will turn to more insurgent style attacks in Iraq and internationally. On Tuesday, bombings in Brussels claimed by IS killed 31 people and injured nearly 300.
The Islamic State said that more than 60 people died, including a local militia commander, and that nearly 100 were wounded in the attack. The bomber was named as Saifullah al-Ansari, an apparently fake name indicating that he was a local Iraqi or Syrian member of the group. A photograph accompanying the statement suggests he was in his early teens.
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“Our knight immersed into their crowds until he detonated his belt, turning them into scattered parts,” the statement said.
The Islamic State has been resorting to suicide attacks with growing frequency in recent weeks as the group’s fighters slowly lose control of territories they had held in some instances since 2014.
[In Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State is in retreat on multiple fronts]
More than 50 people died in a suicide truck bombing in the Babil province town of Hilla this month, a week after two suicide bombings targeting Shiite areas of Baghdad killed more than 100. Hilla is a mixed Sunni-Shiite town, but the attacks there have targeted Shiite communities.
Sly reported from Beirut.
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