35 killed in Isis-claimed suicide attacks in Iraq

Civilians pass a destroyed car in the a car bomb explosion in southwestern Baghdad, Iraq. Two car bombs in southwestern Baghdad killed and wounded people and police officers late on Friday night according to Iraqi police and hospital officials. Picture: Karim Kadim/AP

Civilians pass a destroyed car in the a car bomb explosion in southwestern Baghdad, Iraq. Two car bombs in southwestern Baghdad killed and wounded people and police officers late on Friday night according to Iraqi police and hospital officials. Picture: Karim Kadim/AP

Published May 20, 2017

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Baghdad - Thirty-five people were killed and 33 injured in a

string of suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State extremist

militia in two Iraqi cities, police said Saturday.

The overnight attacks involving car bombings targeted security

checkpoints in the capital Baghdad and the southern city of Basra,

they added.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the four bombings in online

statements.

In recent months, Islamic State has stepped up its attacks in

different parts of Iraq in a bid to distract attention from an

ongoing US-backed campaign to dislodge it from its last key

stronghold of Mosul in Iraq.

On February 19, Iraqi forces started a major offensive to wrest back

the western section of Mosul from Islamic State, almost a month after

they recaptured the eastern part of the city.

Over the past weeks, government forces have retaken

several neighbourhoods in western Mousl, squeezing the Islamic State

militants into small-but-densely populated parts of the city.

Islamic State seized Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in a blitz in

mid-2014.

DPA

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