A motorcycle has bombed in the Iraqi province of Anbar on late Monday leading to the killing of police individuals, as the Iraqi Minister of Justice sentenced five extremists loyal to ISIS to death . Meanwhile, local sources revealed that six leaders of ISIS were killed during the bombardment of strongholds of ISIS by the fighter jets of International Coalition.
An Islamic State suicide bomber’s belt exploded prematurely, accidently killing the militant and 12 other comrades in Diyala, according to a top police official.
Diyala police chief Jassem al-Saadi said in a statement that twelve IS militants in Mekheisa region, northeast of Baqubah, were bidding farewell to a comrade who was on his way for a suicide attack. Saadi said that the explosive belt on the bomber’s body went off to kill well-wishers instead.
The incident occurred during what the rite which the group dubs “blood party”, according to Saadi.
Islamic State suicide bombers have escalated suicide and gun attacks against security forces and civilians over the past months as Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, proceed with a major offensive to drive the group out of its main stronghold in Iraq; Mosul.
Violence and armed conflicts left 824 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of May, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths.
Some security observers believe that even after IS’s main havens across Iraqi provinces are conquered, the group may still constitute a security threat through sleeper cells and lone wolf attacks. They believe attacks outside Mosul are designed to make up for the group’s losses there.
In the same context, Iraqi Federal Police forces took over Islamic State’s main hospital in Mosul’s Old City on Monday as operations near a total recapture of Iraq’s second largest city.
The service’s chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said in statements that “Federal Police troops took over Daesh (Islamic State) main medical center in Bab al-Beed, and seized a large amount of medicines”. He said police expanded the scope of operations and opened new battle fronts in Bab Jadid area, and became 350 meters closer to a commercial area in Serjkhana
Earlier on Monday, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said the army’s Counter-Terrorism Service forces took over al-Farouq, the closest area to the Grand Nuri Mosque from where IS declared its rule in Iraq in 2014.
Iraqi government forces launched a U.S.-backed offensive in October to retake Mosul, managing to liberate the eastern section of the city in January. Operations for the western side launched in February.
Iraqi generals say a few hundred militants are currently besieged within less than one kilometer in the medieval Old City, but holding hundreds of thousands of civilians as human shields. Government and military officials expect the city to be IS-free within the coming few days.
On the political side, “The victory announcement will come in a very short time,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on his website on Monday evening. “The operation is continuing to free the remaining parts of the Old City,” Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) told a Reuters correspondent near the frontline in the heart of the Old City.
Iraqi forces had about 600 meters (2,000 ft) left to cover before they reach Cornishe Street alongside the western bank of the Tigris, Federal Police commander Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat told Iraqi State TV. “In a few days our forces will reach Cornishe Street and bring the battle to its conclusion,” said Jawdat, adding that federal police had forced militants out of Ziwani mosque in the Old City’s southwestern corner.