Islamic State attacks Baghdad mall

Two suicide bombers also detonated explosives at the mall’s entrance, which is located in the city’s New Baghdad district.

The Islamic State group is warning of “worse” attacks to come, after an attack on a mall in Baghdad today that left 18 people dead.

 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi recently vowed that IS’ “presence in Iraq will be terminated” in 2016.

The attack and the violent response recalled the darkest days of Iraq’s sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, when tens of thousands of Shiites and Sunnis were killed in revenge attacks.

The European Union issued a statement expressing its support to Iraq in the aftermath of the attacks and stressing that “these tragic events underline the fragility of the security situation”.

Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State extremist group in Diyala early a year ago.

An anti-Qaeda “Awakening” group fighter scans an area outside a village on the southern outskirts of the Diyala provincial capital Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on January 28, 2008. He blamed “undisciplined (Shi’ite) militias” for burning the mosques.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in June 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have since dealt the jihadists significant defeats.

Witnesses said some of the those killed on Tuesday had been shot inside their homes or dragged into the street and executed by gunmen wearing black and camouflage uniforms. Some news agencies, including the Associated Press, had counts as high as 18, citing police and hospital sources.

Two bombs later went off in the eastern town of Muqdadiya, where at least 23 people were killed and 51 injured. On their way back to Baquba, gunmen sprayed their vehicle with automatic gunfire. They clashed with the attackers inside, killing two of them and arresting another four. The exact sequence of the attack in the Baghdad al-Jadida area of the Iraqi capital was not immediately clear but security officials and an AFP reporter described scenes of chaos.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the incident.

Multiple attacks in Iraq have killed more than 50 people and injured more than 90 in a rapid escalation of violence, leaving the highest death toll for three months.