BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed at least 27 Shi’ite militiamen outside the Iraqi town of Jurf al-Sakhar yesterday after security forces pushed Islamic State militants out of the area over the weekend, army and police sources said.
The attacker, driving a Humvee vehicle packed with explosives and likely stolen from defeated government troops, also wounded 60 Shi’ite Muslim militiamen, who had helped government forces retake the town just south of the capital.
Iraqis are bracing for more sectarian attacks on Shi’ites, who are preparing for the religious festival of Ashura, an event that defines Shi’ism and its rift with Sunni Islam.
At mosques and shrines across Iraq, millions of Shi’ites are expected to commemorate the slaying of Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hussein at the battle of Kerbala in AD 680.
Violence has in the past marred the run up to the event, which will take place next week, and the festival itself.
Last night, a car bomb killed at least 15 people in central Baghdad, police and medical sources said. The attack took place on a street with shops and restaurants in Karrada district, home to both Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims as well as other sects and ethnic groups.
Islamic State sees Shi’ites as infidels who deserve to die and their attacks on them have brought violence back to levels seen in 2006 and 2007 at the height of a civil war.
Holding Jurf al-Sakhar is critical for Iraqi security forces, who finally managed to drive out the Sunni insurgents after months of fighting and need to capitalise on their victory to keep the militants away from Baghdad.
It could also allow Iraqi forces to sever Islamic State connections to their strongholds in western Anbar province and stop them infiltrating the mainly Shi’ite Muslim south.
