ISIS claims two deadly attacks in Iraq

Worldwide desk – More than 50 people were killed in attacks by suspected Islamic State suicide bombers and gunmen in Baghdad and adjoining towns, officials said Monday.

Militants wearing suicide vests stormed a busy mall in the Iraqi capital Monday as part of apparently coordinated attacks that killed at least 13 people and brought an end to a relative lull in Baghdad’s violence, authorities said.

“These attacks once again display the utter disregard ISIL has for the lives of innocent civilians”, he said using an acronym for Islamic State.

A separate vehicle bomb elsewhere in the city killed five people and wounded 12.

A security source in nearby Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, told the BBC that Shia militiamen had later gone on a rampage against Sunnis in Muqdadiya, summarily killing at least three men from the central al-Asiri district.

The IS group steadily targets areas the place crowds collect, together with markets, cafes and mosques throughout Iraq.

A auto bomb then went off as medics and civilians gathered at the site of the first blast.

The murders came as a suicide bomber killed four police and wounded a top intelligence officer elsewhere in the province, a day after other bombings claimed 20 lives.

The double bombing at the Muqdadiya cafe killed at least 20 people, majority Shia militiamen from the paramilitary Popular Mobilisation forces which are battling IS in western and northern Iraq. Around 50 people were wounded in those attacks as well, Reuters reported.

Monday’s combined attacks made for one of the worst days of violence in months in areas that are not active frontlines. A number of major roads, shopping malls and bridges around the Iraqi capital were also closed for fear of follow-up attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

Islamic State said it was responsible for attacks on the shopping complex in a statement circulated online by supporters said.

Police officials say two assailants detonated explosive belts after security forces stormed the building, while two other attackers were shot dead by police.

Initial reports said that as many as four gunmen had entered the Jawhara Mall in the Baghdad al-Jadida neighborhood and taken shoppers hostage.