Iraq : Suicide Bomber Kills 29 At A Football Stadium

Iskandariya: A suicide bomber blew himself up on Friday at a football stadium in Iraq, killing at least 29 people and injuring 60 others.

The bombing took place at 4:15 PM during a match in the small stadium in the city of Iskanderiyah, 50 km from Iraq’s capital Baghdad. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack via a statement posted online. An apparent escalation of large bombings targeting areas outside ISIL's primary control suggests that Iraqi government forces may be stretched thin after recent gains against the group in the western and northern provinces.

Iskanderiyah’s population has a mixed crowd of Shia and Sunni Muslims. The bombing came as Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rusoul announced that Iraqi troops and Sunni tribal fighters recaptured the town of Kubeisa in western Anbar province from the Islamic State group. A day earlier, ISIL fighters were pushed out of a string of villages in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province under cover of heavy coalition air strikes. Iraqi ground forces are working to build on recent gains in Anbar and prepare for an eventual push on the northern city of Mosul, the largest city held by the militants in the “caliphate” they declared across parts of Iraq and Syria.

Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his supporters have held regular demonstrations demanding reforms to tackle corruption, which is eating into Baghdad's resources even as it struggles with falling revenues due to a slump in global oil prices and high spending caused by the costs of war against ISIL.