Follow
Islamic State bombers assassinated an Iraqi provincial police chief and killed about 28 people in an attack on a Kurdish security headquarters Sunday in a second straight day of mass attacks.
Yesterday’s attacks came a day after militants killed at least 45 people in bombings in west Baghdad and its rural outskirts. Islamic State militants have controlled sections of Anbar province for most of this year and swept through northern Iraq back in June. The group also controls a swathe of Syria.
But activists say Kurdish fighters have been able to halt the advance of the extremist group in the Syrian border town of Kobani.
The two attacks, in the north of the country and the west, showed the jihadist group’s ability to inflict damage on both the forces of the autonomous Kurdish region and the central government, despite US-led air strikes.
So apparently the US-led air attacks launched against Islamic State or ISIS on 8 August in Iraq and 23 September in Syria have not worked. President Obama’s plan to “degrade and destroy” Islamic State has not even begun to achieve success. In both Syria and Iraq, ISIS is expanding its control rather than contracting.
The deadliest attack occurred before noon in Iraq’s Diyala province when two explosive-laden cars were detonated. The incident was followed by more violence when a suicide bomber blew up himself outside a police headquarters in Qara-Tabba town, about 175 km from Baghdad.
“Our latest reports said the number of casualties reached 33, including the suicide bomber, 11 Kurdish security members and two members of town council,” the source said, adding around 135 people were wounded, including displaced women and children.
Major General Ahmed Saddak al-Dulaimi was killed when a roadside bomb struck his convoy in Albu Risha area in the northern part of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Albu Risha area has been the scene of fierce clashes during the past few days between the Abu Risha followers backed Iraqi security forces and Sunni tribal groups, including the Islamic State militant group.
U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice said Turkey, which has been under pressure over the situation in Kobani, has agreed to let the U.S. train Syrian rebels on its soil to fight ISIS. Turkey will also allow American and coalition forces to use its military bases to launch attacks against ISIS.
