Iraq : 60 Killed In Revenge Attack By ISIL Suicide Bombers

Al Baghdadi: More than 60 people have been killed and about 83 have been injured in a wave of suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacks on military posts and civilian neighborhoods across Iraq on Monday.

At least 26 troops were killed when a car bomb went off in the city of al Baghdadi, which is west of the strategically vital Anbar province and near Ain al-Asad airbase, whereas at least six pro-government militia fighters were killed and 18 others were injured in two separate ISIL attacks there.

Thousands of civilians were fleeing as Iraqi troops advance under the cover of heavy air strikes and artillery fire. Families, many with small children and elderly relatives, walked for hours through desert littered with roadside bombs to escape the violence. Iraq’s counter-terrorism forces estimate more than 20,000 civilians are trapped inside the town.

The deadliest attack took place in the southern province of Nasiriyah, where at least 14 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a restaurant frequented by Shiite paramilitary militia fighters. Another 27 people were wounded in the attack on the well-known restaurant, which is located on the main highway that links the capital of Baghdad with the southern provinces.
At around the same time, a suicide car bomber set off his explosives-laden vehicle in a commercial area in the oil-rich city of Basra, killing at least five people and wounding ten others.

The series of bombings came as Iraqi forces continued a campaign to wrest back control of parts of Anbar province and Mosul city — which was seized by ISIL in 2014.