Huge bombing hit a market in Tuz Khurmatu region in Salahuddin

Nineteen people were killed and 70 others  were injured in a car bomb blast in Tuz Khurmatu region in Salahuddin province on Tuesday, according to a medical source. A booby-trapped vehicle exploded near an overcrowded market at the Military District in Salahuddin province, a medical source told Al-Ghad Press on Tuesday, adding that the number of casualties is expected to rise.

Last week, Al-Hashd al-Shaabi [Popular Mobilization Forces], backed by Federal Police, repelled an attack by IS members near Salahuddin, a source told Baghdad Today. “The attack targeted checkpoints for PMFs in al-Bu Eissa village, on borders between Salahuddin and located adjacent to Mutaibija,” the source said.

Salahuddin province was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings this year. US-backed Iraqi forces have dislodged Islamic State from most of the cities it captured in 2014 and 2015. The militants also control parts of Syria.

Tuz Khurmatu was one of the areas disputed by Iraq and Kurdistan Region. Iraqi forces recaptured the area mid October as part of a government push to impose control over disputed territories in response to Kurdistan’s independence referendum held in September.

Iraq declared recently the end of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq with the recapture of the militants’ last stronghold: Anbar’s town of Rawa. On its hand, Iraqi Presidency condemned on Wednesday the car bomb blast that hit Tuz Khurmatu region in Salahuddin province on Tuesday.

“Such heinous crimes aim at fomenting sedition among the Iraqi people and undermining Iraq’s unity,” the presidency said in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Al-Ghad Press. “President Fuad Masum offers condolences to the victims’ families and wishes the injured a speedy recovery,” the statement read, adding that perpetrators of this terrorist attack have no humanity or morals as they targeted innocent people.

Masum also called on Iraqi troops to be on full alert to deal with any possible terrorist attack in the coming period. Seventeen people were killed and 36 others were injured in a car bomb blast in Tuz Khurmatu region in Salahuddin province on Tuesday, according to the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell.

A booby-trapped vehicle exploded near an overcrowded market at the Askari (Military) district in Salahuddin province, the source told Al-Ghad Press. Salahuddin province was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings this year. US-backed Iraqi forces have dislodged Islamic State from most of the cities it captured in 2014 and 2015. The militants also control parts of Syria.

Tuz Khurmatu was one of the areas disputed by Iraq and Kurdistan Region. Iraqi forces recaptured the area mid October as part of a government push to impose control over disputed territories in response to Kurdistan’s independence referendum held in September.

On the other hand, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said that his country has defeated Islamic State over the military level, but will declare final victory after desert areas are purged of militants. In his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Abadi said “Daesh (Islamic State) has been crushed militarily”, adding that he will declare final victory over the group after “ending the purging operations in the desert”.

Last Friday, Iraqi forces recaptured Anbar’s western town of Rawa, the very last bastion under Islamic State control. But some runaway militants are thought to be at desert areas near the borders with Syria, and Iraqi commanders said recently they were aiming to impose control over the borderline.

Since October 2016, Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, launched a multi-phased offensive to retake territories Islamic State had occupied in 2014 to proclaim a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”. Since then, forces took back the group’s former capital, Mosul, the town of Tal Afar, Kirkuk’s Hawija, and Anbar’s Annah, Rawa and Qaim.

The war against IS has displaced nearly five million people, with tens of thousands of civilians and militants killed since the launch of the offensives to recapture occupied cities.