2 Kidz die in bomb attack in Ramadi
Anbar(IraqiNews.com) Two children were killed due to an bomb explosion in al-Bou’itha region, north of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a security source said on Thursday.
“A bomb placed on the side of the road in al-Bou’itha region, north of Ramadi,” the source told Al-Ghad Press. “The blast killed two children, who were there at the spot of the blast.”
In related news, another security source told Mawazin News that “two bombs planted under electricity pylons on the road linking between Hit and al-Baghdadi districts were defused without losses.”
Anbar’s western regions still host some IS strongholds that sustain occasional bombardments by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition fighter jets.
Violence in the country left 1115 casualties, excluding security members, during March, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI).
IS is believed to have begun escalating 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 argue that attacks outside the province prove that the extremist group can still pose a security threat for all cities.
ISIS destroys residences on Salahuddin-Diyala border
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Three Islamic State militants were killed Thursday while a fourth was arrested while trying to plant bombs targeting paramilitary forces at Salahuddin-Diyala borders.
Mahdi Taqi, a member at the security committee at Salahuddin province, said three militants were killed and a fourth was attested, while an explosive device was neutralized in a “preemptive operation” by al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) in Kifri, a region on the borders with Diyala. He said the militants were killed while planting landmines targeting the forces.
Meanwhile, an official in Diyala said IS began to detonate civilian homes o prevent the return of refugees at the borders with Salahuddin.
Udai al-Kahdran, mayor of al-Khales (15 km north of Baqubah), said in a press statement that Islamic State members began, days earlier, to blow up civilian houses at Boujanaan, Boujomaa and Hathal al-Mutlak border villages. He said the action comes as part of IS attempts to prevent refugees’ repatriation and to blame the damage on Iraqi forces.
Khadran reiterated that the borders between Salahuddin and Diyala continue to pose a security challenge that requires military action to eliminate the group’s pockets at the abandoned villages.
The Iraqi government is expected to launch offensives at IS havens across Iraq once finished with its operation in Mosul, IS’s largest bastion in Iraq.
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Villagers defied ISIS by smoking cigarettes
[FREEBEACON] Iraqis living under oppression from the 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
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
defied the barbaric terrorist group by smoking cigarettes.
To residents of Badoosh, a village in northern Iraq that was liberated just over a week ago, "smoking equals freedom."
New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
correspondent Rukmini Callimachi encountered many residents who said they would conceal their cigarette smoking from ISIS terrorists, which would cut off fingers for violating the group's smoking ban.
Callimachi shared on Twitter the story of a cow herder in Badoosh who is celebrating the freedom to smoke again since the village was liberated.
"Yesterday, my team made it to the furthest point I've gone northwest of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
to the locality of Badoosh, where we interviewed residents," Callimachi said. "I noticed that everywhere we went in Badoosh, residents were ’wearing' packs of cigarettes, like this gentleman. His name is Mohammed Ahmed Saleh, and he's a cow herder, and he asked my colleague to light his cigarette when we got out of the car."
"His village near Badoosh was liberated 10 days ago [and] he launched into a diatribe about IS [and] how happy he is to be able to smoke again," she said.
Callimachi said that although she is a "Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, girl through and through" who hates secondhand smoke, she said it was "obvious that smoking for this man [equals] freedom."
"That's when Mohammed began describing the lengths he took to find cigarettes under ISIS [and] the thrill it gave him to break their rules," she said.
The Iraqis were smoking Akhtamar Classics, which sport a logo similar to the Statue of Liberty. Callimachi reported that the Armenian cigarette brand cost 63 cents before ISIS spiked the cost to $17.