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On Friday, a fierce battle between extremist group Islamic State (IS) and federal forces caused the deaths of seventeen Iraqi soldiers, while bombing in and around Baghdad killed 16 others.
The clashes in the town of Jurf al-Sakhr, a settlement situated alongside the Euphrates River and a road that links Sunni militant strongholds to Shi’ite holy sites to the south of Baghdad. The death toll was confirmed by an army medic, who added that 23 militants from the IS were also killed. The Sunni-dominated town in the province of Babil sees fighting almost every day between militants and government forces.
IS had launched an offensive sweeping through Iraq on June 9th, and conquered the city of Mosul and several other parts of the country.Jurf al-Sakhr is on the edge of what was known as the “triangle of death” during the sectarian violence eight years ago.
The Iraqi army and militias allied to it, like Asaib Ahl al-Haq, take up positions in Jurf al-Sakhr during the day, but pull back by nightfall, allowing militants to plant bombs along the roads. If the federal forces lost to town to extremists, the Iraqi government would lose one of the two roads that connect Baghdad to the Shi’ite heartland in the south, including the cities of Najaf and Karbala.
On Monday, 17 people, including some IS members, were killed by a government air raid in Jurf al-Sakhr.
A car bomb in Baghdad blew up in a street in Sadr City, a Shi’ite neighborhood, killing at least 9 people and wounding 21 others, medical sources and a police colonel said.
The city was also the scene of three other blasts which went off near a Shi’ite mosque in Kholani Square.
Reportedly, five people were killed and 16 people were wounded in the bombings. Another bomb blast in the town Madain, just to the south of Baghdad, caused the deaths of two civilians and injuries to seven others.