1 dead in bomb attack in Suweib
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One person was killed and four others were wounded on Saturday when a bomb blast rocked an area south of Baghdad, sources said.
A police source told Alsumaria News that an explosive device went off near a building materials store in Suweib, south of the capital.
Violence surged in Iraq with the emergence of Islamic State militants who took over large areas of the country in 2014. Baghdad has been witnessing almost daily bombings targeting civilians and security personnel.
Nobody has claimed responsibility yet for the Monday bombing, but IS militants have said they had been responsible for several bloody explosions that hit the capital in the past months, bringing the governorate municipal and security officials under critics’ fire.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said violence in the country left 19000 casualties in nine months of 2016.
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 by government forces on that front and to divert attention from group losses.
While losing Mosul could be the severest blow to the group’s existence in Iraq, some observers believe attacks outside the province prove that the extremist group can still pose a security threat for all cities.