Week Seven AFL3A38

IS kills 24 with car bomb in Baghdad; attack police in Iraq

Wed, Jan 04, 2017

By Reuters, BAGHDAD and TIKRIT, Iraq

An Islamic State car bomb killed 24 people in Baghdad’s Sadr City District on Monday and the militants also attacked two police stations in the city of Samarra, as Iraqi forces fought to oust the group from Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq.

At least four other attacks across Baghdad, some also claimed by the Islamic State group, killed nine more people earlier in the day, bringing the total death toll from bombings in the capital over the past three days to more than 60.

In the attacks in Samarra, about 100km north of Baghdad, security sources said multiple gunmen wearing suicide vests took over two police stations, killing at least seven police officers.

Samarra Mayor Mahmoud Khalaf said security forces had regained control, killing at least six assailants, but declined to comment on the number of casualties on the government side.

The pro-Islamic State news agency Amaq said the militants had executed some police officers.

The upsurge in violence comes as US-backed Iraqi forces try to drive the Islamic State group from Mosul where the militants are putting up fierce resistance.

The Islamic State group has lost most of the territory it seized in a blitz across northern and western Iraq in 2014 and ceding Mosul would probably spell the end of its self-styled caliphate. However, it would still be capable of waging a guerrilla-style insurgency in Iraq and plotting or inspiring attacks on the West.

“The terrorists will attempt to attack civilians in order to make up for their losses, but we assure the Iraqi people and the world that we are able to end terrorism and shorten its life,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said after talks with visiting French President Francois Hollande.

The Islamic State group said Monday’s attacks in Baghdad were revenge for “the repeated targeting of health institutions in Nineveh Province” by the US-led coalition backing Iraqi forces.

That was an apparent reference to two airstrikes last month on hospitals in eastern Mosul, one where Iraqi forces were under attack and another which the US military said had targeted militants sitting in a van. At least one of the strikes might have caused civilian casualties.

After Monday’s attacks US Department of State spokesman John Kirkby reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to support Iraq.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2017/01/04/2003662476

Structure of the Lead：

WHO-Islamic State
WHEN-Monday
WHAT-car bomb killed 24 people, attacked two police stations
WHY-not givenWHERE-Baghdad’s Sadr City District, the city of Samarra
HOW-bombing

Keywords:
1. militants: 激進分子
2. oust: 驅逐
3. stronghold: 大本營
4. casualty: 傷亡人數
5. execute: 將...處死
6. upsurge: 高漲
7. fierce: 強烈的
8. resistance: 反抗
9. guerrilla: 游擊隊
10. airstrike: 空襲