1 dead in bombing attack near Youssefiya
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Five people were either killed or wounded when an explosive device exploded in southern Baghdad on Saturday, police sources have said.
“An IED exploded this morning near a popular marketplace in Qarghoul, Youssefiya, south of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding four others,” the sources told Alsumaria News.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said recently that violence in Iraq had left 19000 casualties in 2016, but said the count excludes deaths in Anbar during three months of that year.
Attacks across Baghdad in the past week, some claimed by the ultra-hardline Sunni group, have killed more than 60 people, Reuters said.
Observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure on that front by government forces, and to divert attention from losses. Government forces, assisted by a US-led military coalition and popular militias, are battling the extremist group since October to recapture cities the group occupied since 2014 to establish a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”.