News Digest

Bombings kill 45 in Shi’ite areas of Baghdad and outskirts; Iraq on high alert

At least 45 people were killed in bombings in Baghdad and its rural outskirts on Saturday as the government continued to defend the capital against jihadists who four months ago seized major cities in northern Iraq. Islamic State (IS) fighters, who took control of large sections of Iraq this year, regularly target Shi’ite districts in Baghdad and are penetrating surrounding farmland where Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite militias try to push them back. In west Baghdad, 34 people were killed by three car bombs in Shi’ite neighborhoods on Saturday evening, police and medical officials said. A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at a traffic roundabout in Kadhimiya, killing 11 people including three police officers, officials said. Another 27 were wounded. Meanwhile, there are now fears of an impending massacre as IS forces have continued to take ground inside the Syrian border town of Kobane. They have overrun the headquarters of the Kurdish militia, and have all but encircled the town despite continuing air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition. On Friday, the U.N. special envoy to Syria warned that up to 700 mainly elderly people were trapped in the town.

The Kurds are moving, they’re taking back towns and territory, [whereas the Iraqi army] starts an operation and it stops after a kilometre.

U.S. official

Iraqi officials have now made an urgent appeal for military help in the western Anbar province, saying the area could fall to IS militants. The jihadist group has been attacking the provincial capital Ramadi, and has seized army bases in the area. A U.S. official told AFP news agency the situation in Anbar was “fragile”. IS fighters control large stretches of territory in Syria and Iraq and are also fighting for control of Kobane. Anbar is a strategically important province, and home to Iraq’s second-largest dam, the Haditha dam. Seizing Anbar would give IS control of a stretch of territory across much of Syria and Iraq, enabling it to establish a supply line and potentially launch attacks on the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.