Iraq: Bombings And Clashes Against Islamic State Kill 54 People

Bombings And Clashes Against Islamic State

Iraq: Bombings And Clashes Against Islamic State Kill 54 People

Iraq-Bombings-and-clashes-against-Islamic-State-kill-54-people (1)
An Iraqi Army mechanized unit prepares for an operation in southern Baghdad Iraq on February 20 2005 On July 21 2015 battles between Islamic State insurgents and Iraqi security forces along with multiple suicide bombings killed up to 54 people across central and western Iraq File photo by Ken JamesUPI

BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) — Suicide bombings and battles between pro-government forces and Islamic State militants in central and western Iraq killed 54 people on Tuesday.

Since announcing an offensive into Anbar province early last week, Iraqi security forces, backed by Iran-trained Shia militias, Sunni tribal fighters and U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, have been locked in battles with IS insurgents.

Dozens of IS militants assaulted a base north of Fallujah, using suicide car bombs and infantry before being repelled with the help of coalition airstrikes, a provincial security source told Xinhua news agency on condition of anonymity. Seven IS fighters were killed and 14 wounded, while Iraqi troops and Shia militiamen suffered 11 killed and 20 wounded.

Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces and Sunni tribal fighters assaulted toward the city of Haditha, losing seven killed and four wounded during an encounter with IS fighters in the Albu Haiyat area east of the city.

The security source reportedly told Xinhua a coalition airstrike destroyed a vehicle filled with ammunition and killed five IS militants near the town of Khaldiyah. Three others were wounded in the strike.

Fighting between both sides in the region has gone back and forth for months. IS forces captured the capital of Anbar province, Ramadi, in May. The month prior, the Iraqi military, bolstered by coalition air power and Shia militias known as Popular Mobilization Forces, or Hashd Shaabi, seized the city of Tikrit, in Salahuddin province, from IS militants.

Also on Tuesday, three separate suicide car bomb attacks in and around Baghdad killed 24 people and wounded 62 others, Xinhua reports.

The attacks come three days after IS forces claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Diyala province that killed 130 people and wounded an equal number. The militants said the attack targeted a gathering of militias in the predominantly Shia Muslim city of Khan Bani Saad.

The group also claimed a series of bombings that killed at least 28 people in several of Baghdad’s Shia neighborhoods last week.

IS forces spilled into Iraq from Syria in June 2014, sending tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers running from key cities such as Mosul without a fight.

The U.S. State Department last month said the international coalition to defeat IS, known as Operation Inherent Resolve, had so far killed an estimated 10,000 IS fighters in Iraq and Syria. Days later it said efforts to defeat IS forces in Iraq may take between three and five years.

According to United Nations estimates, violence has killed nearly 15,000 civilians in Iraq since the start of 2014 to the end of April 2015, while more than 29,000 have been wounded.

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