17 people killed in suicide attack near Baghdad

17 people were killed in a bomb blast near a market at Jisr Diyala area in Baghdad, a source told Baghdad Press. “An explosive device planted near a market at Jisr Diyala neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad, went off, leaving three people injured,” the source said on Monday.

“Security forces cordoned off the blast site and prevented civilians from approaching,” he said, adding that ambulances carried the injured to a nearby hospital for treatment. On Sunday, seven people were killed and injured in a bomb blast south of Baghdad.

Speaking to AlSumaria News, a source said, “A bomb, placed near a market in al-Nahrawan region, south of Baghdad, exploded in the morning, leaving a person killed and six others wounded.” Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

About 114 Iraqi civilians were killed, while 244 others were wounded as a result of terrorism, violence and armed conflicts, according to a monthly release by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). The Iraqi capital has seen almost daily bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary troops and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake Islamic State-occupied areas in 2016.

In the same context, Iraqi troops are on high alert to liberate Wadi Hauran area from the Islamic State militants, a military commander said. “Our units have cleared 50 percent of the total area of the desert of around 29,000 square kilometers (11,000 sq miles). The first phase is over,” Spokesman for the Joint Operations Command Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told AFP on Monday.

“Now, our units will proceed to clearing the rest of the desert zones, including Wadi (valley) Hauran,” he said. “The valley is deep and reaches Syrian territory. The mission is to destroy all the hideouts in the desert and valleys to secure western Iraq’s border with Syria” before soldiers are posted along the frontier, he said.

Wadi Hauran, with 200-metre-deep (650-foot-deep), is the longest valley in Iraq, stretching on 350 kilometers (210 miles) from the Saudi border to the Euphrates River, also reaching the borders with Jordan. The Islamic State group has controlled most of the valley in Anbar Province since 2014, setting up arms depots and resupply posts.

Troops and paramilitaries launched the desert offensive on Thursday aiming to inflict a final defeat on IS. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he will not proclaim victory until the IS militants have been cleared from the western desert bordering Syria.