Attack kills 30 at Iraq Shiite shrine
Islamic State group militants killed 30 people at a Shiite shrine north of Baghdad, striking the area with suicide bombers, gunfire and mortar rounds, an Iraqi security spokesman said today.
Â
The overnight attack also wounded 50 people, the Joint Operations Command spokesman said in a statement.
Â
The Sayyid Mohammed shrine was first targeted with mortar rounds, after which suicide bombers arrived at the shrine and opened fire, the statement said.
Â
Two of the bombers then blew themselves up in a market next to the shrine while the third was killed and his explosive belt defused, it said, without specifying which forces killed the bomber.
Â
The attack in the Balad area, located 70 kilometres north of Baghdad, came just five days after a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged minibus in the capital, killing 292 people.
Â
That blast was one of the deadliest bombings to hit Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country, which set the stage for 13 years of bloody violence.
Â
The Baghdad bombing was claimed by the Islamic State group, which overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but has since lost significant ground to Iraqi forces.
Â
In response to the battlefield setbacks, the group has hit back against civilians, and experts have warned there may be more bombings as the jihadists continue to lose ground.