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Twin suicide bombs targeting the Shabak minority and clashes between militants and security forces in the northern province of Nineveh in Iraq on Friday left 33 people dead, officials said. Mosul, Ninevah’s provincial capital, is one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq, with militant groups involved in near-daily attacks.
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in vehicles in Al-Muwaffaqiyah, a pre-dominantly Shabak village east of Mosul, killing 4 people and wounding 45 others, medical and police officials said. In west Mosul, 3 soldiers, 16 militants and 4 policemen were killed in clashes, and a civilian was killed by a mortar round, they added. In the Hamam al-Alil region to Mosul’s south, soldiers shot and killed 5 would-be suicide bombers.
Only a day prior, militants had launched a major assault on the city Samarra to the north of Baghdad, and were able to seize control of multiple neighborhoods. According to sources, policemen, tribal fighters and soldiers were able to regain control of the region, but only after heavy fighting which cost the lives of 12 policemen and dozens of militants.
Most of the 30,000 Shabaks in Iraq follow a blend of local beliefs and Shiite Islam. They are viewed by Sunni Islamist groups as heretics and are the frequent target of their attacks.
The surge of violence in Iraq is at its highest since 2006-07, when over tens of thousands dead in sectarian clashes between the Sunni minority and the Shiite majority in Iraq. According to data compiled separately by the government and the United Nations, over 900 people were killed in Iraq last month. Additionally, over 4,300 people have been killed so far this year.
Officials blame the violence on external factors like the civil war in neighboring Syria. However, most analysts agree that widespread Sunni Arab chagrin at the mostly-Shiite government is the main reason for the growing wave of violence.