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Fierce clashes erupted yesterday between Iraqi government troops and Islamic State fighters on the outskirts of Samarra, the Iraqi military said, as the militant group tries to push into the northern city that is home to one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines. |
The defence ministry said its troops killed at least 15 militants in battles south of Samarra, located around 110km north of Baghdad.
The ministry’s statement did not give any casualties among government troops.
Islamic State (IS) has in recent weeks intensified attacks on Samarra, prompting authorities and allied Shia militias to reinforce defences in the city.
The advances were the extremist group’s most significant in recent weeks.
Seizing Samarra would strengthen its foothold in the north and threaten Baghdad. The group also controls considerable swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria.
Samarra, a Sunni majority city, contains the shrine of the ninth-century Shia imam Hassan al-Askari.
A 2006 attack on the shrine triggered retaliatory violence across the country that claimed hundreds of lives.
Iraq’s most influential Shia cleric, Ali al-Sistani, yesterday called for “vigilance” against IS attempts to overrun Samarra.
“Iraqi troops have achieved important victories in several areas on Daesh elements, but this organisation is today threatening areas containing holy shrines such as Samarra,” Sistani’s representative Abdel-Mahdi al-Karbalani said in a sermon, using an Arabic acronym for the militant group.
“Troops should exercise vigilance and caution as they face Daesh,” al-Karbala added in the southern city of Karbala.
He called for greater military efforts to recapture territory that is still under the extremist group’s control in Iraq’s Sunni heartland in the north and the west.
Yesterday, unknown gunmen fired mortars at a Shia mosque north of Baghdad, killing at least three worshippers, police said.
Fifteen were wounded in the attack that occurred in the town of Mugdadiyah, some 90km north of Baghdad, according to independent Iraqi news site Almada Press.
Mostly Shia areas have in recent years been the target of deadly attacks.
Millions of Shia pilgrims thronged Karbala yesterday for one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, in defiance of the threat posed by IS.
With just hours to go until the Arbaeen commemoration reaches its climax today, a sea of black-clad devotees filled the streets, waving flags, beating their chests and chanting.
A mortar attack near the city earlier in the day killed one person and wounded four, highlighting the security concerns surrounding the annual event.
Nine rounds hit an area called Souq al-Basra, around 7km from the city centre, a police colonel said, adding that the casualties were local residents and not pilgrims.
Record numbers of Shia faithful have been converging on Karbala from across Iraq and other countries for Arbaeen, which marks the end of a 40-day period of mourning.
Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi said on Thursday that 17mn pilgrims had come to Karbala for Arbaeen.
Brigadier General Qais Khalaf Rahim, head of operations command for the Karbala area, said “the number of visitors is far greater than last year’s”.
“We had to open more routes to Karbala and double the number of cars, buses and trucks transporting pilgrims to the city,” he told reporters.
For days, millions of faithful have been converging on the holy city, entire families trekking for days on the roads and sleeping in the open.
Central Baghdad has been in lockdown mode much of the week as authorities restricted access and movement in order to avoid a complete logjam and minimise the risks of major bomb attacks.
Three people were killed and four wounded earlier this week, when a bomb went off in Baghdad near one of the thousands of tents set up to serve food and beverages to marching pilgrims, security and medical sources said.
