Iraq suicide bombing kills 47, hurts dozens

ISIS claims checkpoint blast at Hillah

Civilians and security forces gather as workers remove destroyed vehicles at the scene of a suicide bomb attack in Hillah, Iraq, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, on Sunday.
Civilians and security forces gather as workers remove destroyed vehicles at the scene of a suicide bomb attack in Hillah, Iraq, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, on Sunday.

HILLAH, Iraq -- A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden fuel truck into a security checkpoint south of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 47 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

photo

AP

People gather at the scene of a suicide bomb attack in Hillah, Iraq, on Sunday. The suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden fuel truck into a security checkpoint.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in an online statement circulated by supporters.

It was the third bombing in and around Baghdad in a little more than a week, and appeared to be part of a campaign by the Islamic State to stage attacks deep behind front lines in order to wreak havoc and force the government to overextend its forces.

Crowds gathered at the scene, picking through rubble and twisted car parts in search of survivors. Smoke rose from smoldering cars that had been lined up at the main checkpoint at the northern entrance to the city of Hillah, located about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

"The blast has completely destroyed the checkpoint and its buildings," Falah al-Khafaji, a senior security official in Hillah, said as he stood at the edge of the blast site. "More than 100 cars have been damaged."

The Islamic State, also known by the acronym ISIS, has carried out scores of suicide bombings against security forces and the country's Shiite majority. Hillah is in the country's mainly Shiite south, far from the front lines of the war against the Islamic State.

Among the dead were 39 civilians, while the rest were members of the security forces. The attacker struck shortly after noon when the checkpoint was crowded with dozens of cars, a police officer said. He added that up to 65 other people were wounded.

A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

Ali al-Hamdani, who owns a restaurant less than 350 feet from the checkpoint, said, "I felt an earthquake" when the vehicle exploded.

He added, "I immediately lay on the ground and saw flames all over the checkpoint."

Hamdani, 54, said that he then stood up "to check on my friends who sell tea near the checkpoint," and that "one of them was beheaded and others were killed."

Um Zahra, 32, a teacher, had been on her way to work in a minibus when the attack occurred around 12:30 p.m. "People were trying to evacuate injured people and burned bodies," she said. "It was a very hard scene."

Iraq has seen a spike in violence in the past month, with suicide attacks claimed by Islamic State killing more than 170 people. The attacks follow a string of advances by Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, including in the western city of Ramadi, which was declared fully "liberated" by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition officials last month.

Such attacks "force the government and the militias to look back and reallocate resources and reassess," said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, referring to the mainly Shiite militias fighting alongside government forces.

Islamic State still controls large swaths of Iraq and neighboring Syria and has declared an Islamic "caliphate" on the territory it holds. The extremist group controls Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, as well as the city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say it may not even be possible to retake Mosul this year, despite repeated vows by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to do so.

As the U.S. and its allies furiously work to train thousands more troops for the task of retaking Mosul, Islamic State fighters are waging a diversion campaign of suicide attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere. Their aim is to force Iraq's already overburdened security forces to spread even thinner to protect the capital and other cities rather than prepare the Mosul operation.

Iraq's answer to that has been a plan to build a wall around the capital. Meanwhile, the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqis are struggling to protect pockets of territory that have been recaptured from the extremists.

The northern city of Mosul, once home to more than a million people, was the biggest prize captured by the Islamic State group when it swept over much of Iraq's north and west in the summer of 2014 and declared a "caliphate" across those lands and territory it holds in Syria. While Iraqi forces have clawed back some territory in the past year, retaking Mosul is considered crucial for breaking the jihadis' back in the country. Estimates of the number of Islamic State fighters in Mosul vary from a few thousand to "not more than 10,000," according to the coalition.

The U.S.-led coalition began a training program in December 2014, but so far only 18,500 soldiers and security forces have been trained in courses which last about seven weeks. Experts question whether such a crash course is adequate preparation. Coalition and Iraqi officials estimate eight to 12 brigades, or an estimated 24,000 to 36,000 troops, will be needed for the operation to capture Mosul.

So far, 2,000 to 3,000 Iraqi troops have been deployed at Makhmour base, the likely staging ground for a Mosul assault, located 40 miles southeast of the city.

"We are all trained, qualified and ready for battle. But this force is not enough to retake Mosul," said Iraqi Lt. Col Mohammed al-Wagaa, stationed at Makhmour. "The battle for Mosul is going to take a long time."

Under political pressure to show victory, al-Abadi has repeatedly vowed to "liberate" Mosul this year. But U.S. Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress last month: "I'm not as optimistic."

Stewart said they may be able to begin "isolation operations" around the city, but "securing or taking Mosul is an extensive operation and not something I see in the next year or so."

At least 670 Iraqis were killed last month due to ongoing violence, of whom about two-thirds were civilians, according to U.N. figures.

Information for this article was contributed by Ali Al-Fitlawi, Sinan Salaheddin, Mohammed Kaftan, Murtada Faraj, Susannah George, Maamoun Youssef, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Salar Salim of The Associated Press and by Omar Al-Jawoshy of The New York Times.

A Section on 03/07/2016

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