Three bombs killed 29 people in Baghdad yesterday as fighting intensified in the northern city of Mosul, where Iraqi government forces are trying to rout Islamic State militants from their last major stronghold in the country.
Blasts, including one suicide attack, tore through a busy market in the Sinak neighbourhood, police said.
A pro-Islamic State news agency said the target was Shia Muslims.
A third blast later in the day killed four people in the eastern New Baghdad district, where a minibus packed with explosives blew up in a busy commercial street, police and medics said.
Islamic State has continued to launch attacks in the heavily fortified capital, even after losing most of the northern and western territory it seized in 2014.
The recapture of Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate, but the militants would still be capable of fighting a guerrilla-style insurgency in Iraq, and plotting or inspiring attacks on the West.
The second phase of a US-backed offensive launched on Thursday following weeks of deadlock has encountered fierce resistance.
Conventional US forces deploying more extensively in this phase are now visible very close to the front lines.
The third day of the renewed push saw heavy clashes on the southeastern and northern fronts.
An army officer deployed in the southeast said there was fierce fighting on the edge of Intisar district yesterday and advances were slowed by heavy machine gun fire, snipers and rockets attacks by militants entrenched in houses.
The officer said Islamic State fighters were firing from houses with white flags raised over the roofs, falsely indicating they are civilians to avoid being targeted by Iraqi forces and coalition airstrikes.
“The more we advance the tougher it becomes.
The job of differentiating between fake and real houses with civilians inside is becoming more painful to our troops,” he told Reuters by phone.
An elite Interior Ministry unit continued to push yesterday through the Intisar district, where a US-trained army unit had struggled to advance far after entering the southeast district in November.
Qatar condemns bombings in Iraq
The State of Qatar has strongly condemned the bombings in a market in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing and wounding a number of people. In a statement yesterday, the Foreign Ministry said that such criminal acts that target civilians and terrorise innocent people are incompatible with all the moral values and principles of humanity. The statement reiterated Qatar’s firm stance that rejects violence and terrorism in all their forms and manifestations, and whatever the motivations or causes. It also expressed sincere condolences to the Iraqi people and the families of the victims who were killed by this evil crime.
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