Iraqi officials yesterday said separate attacks in the capital, Baghdad, have killed at least eight people and wounded over a dozen others.
The first of yesterday’s attacks came when a bomb ripped through an outdoor market in Baghdad’s southwestern suburb of Nahrawan, killing three civilians and wounding 12.
A police officer says a bomb also struck a military patrol in the northeastern district of Rashdiya, killing three soldiers and wounding seven.
Photo: AFP
Another officer says mortar shells hit the residential area in the southern district of Dora, killing two civilians and wounding six.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
The attacks come as Iraqi forces battle militants of the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, to retake areas in the country’s north
Concern is mounting over the fate of civilians in Tikrit, where Iraqi forces were trying to trap Islamic State group militants as a huge offensive to retake the city entered its fourth day yesterday.
About 30,000 security forces and allied fighters on Monday launched the biggest anti-IS ground operation yet in Iraq, closing in on Tikrit from at least three directions.
A senior commander on Wednesday said operations were focused on cutting supply lines of weapons and reinforcements to the militants, who seized the city in June last year.
The next step will be to “surround the towns completely, suffocate them and then pounce on them,” Lieutenant General Abdel Amir al-Zaidi said.
The US on Wednesday said the offensive must not fuel sectarian tensions.
“It is important ... that this operation should not be used as an excuse or as cover for individuals taking sectarian-motivated retribution,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “That would tear at the fabric of the country, and weaken the ability of the Iraqis to confront this threat to their country.”
Troops have still not retaken ad-Dawr to the south and al-Alam to the north, but some units were already on the edge of the city, military sources said.
Zaidi said the operation had already secured areas further out in Salaheddin Province and was forcing IS fighters to regroup in urban areas.
The government advance has been slowed by car bombs, roadside bombs and sniper fire, as IS fighters retreated to urban positions, but seemed unable to fight back in open areas.
Government forces, Shiite militias and volunteer units have been supported by Iraqi jets and helicopters, as well as Iran.
However, sectarian-fueled revenge killings have been a feature of past operations and rights groups on Wednesday expressed concern.
“We are concerned about the possible recurrence and increase of such attacks in the ongoing operations,” Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser Donatella Rovera said.
Some leaders and fighters have described the operation as an opportunity to avenge last June’s IS massacre of hundreds of new recruits from the nearby base of Speicher.
Some Sunni tribes have been accused of taking part in the massacre, considered the worst of its kind since IS swept through Iraq’s Sunni heartland and beyond the same month.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday said that residents should turn on IS.
Speaking to parliament the next day, he said that “in this battle, there is no neutral party,” arguing that anyone choosing neutrality was effectively siding with IS.
“Abadi’s statement that there can be no neutrality is worrying,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
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