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Iraq
ISIL suicide car bombers kill at least 23 Iraqis
2016-12-23
[Al Jazeera] Three suicide boom-mobiles driven by ISIS fighters killed at least 15 civilians and eight Iraqi coppers on Thursday in an eastern suburb of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, a military statement said.

The attacks targeted Kokjali, a suburb that authorities said they had retaken from ISIS almost two months ago. A military front man told Rooters news agency the vehicle bombs went off in a market.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
mortar fire killed 11 people - including four aid workers - as civilians gathered to receive assistance in the war-torn city of Mosul, the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
said on Thursday.

Iraqi forces launched an operation on October 17 to retake Mosul - the country's last city held by Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) - and have retaken part of its eastern edge. But these areas are still exposed to deadly artillery attacks, suicide vehicle bombings, and sporadic gunfire.

"According to initial reports, four aid workers and at least seven civilians queueing for emergency assistance in eastern Mosul city have been killed by indiscriminate mortar fire," Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement.

"Within the last 48 hours, there have been two separate incidents", which also maimed as many as 40 people, she said.

Mahmud al-Sorchi, a front man for volunteer fighters from Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, said mortar fire killed aid workers from a local organization called Faz3a.

The UN's Damian Rance told Al Jazeera it is still unknown who targeted the aid workers and civilians. But he said ISIS combatants retreating from the military offensive have repeatedly shelled areas after they are retaken by the army, killing or wounding scores of residents fleeing in the opposite direction.

"I do not think we will ever know for certain which party fired the mortar rounds on Thursday," said Rance, a UN communications officer based in Mosul.

"However given that Iraqi forces have not been using artillery in Mosul city, and given that it is likely that the mortar rounds came from probable ISIS held locations, the probability that the mortar rounds were fired by ISIS is high."

Mosul's civilians are increasingly being caught in the crossfire, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.

Posted by:Fred

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