A heartless young man has detonated a bomb at football match killing many innocent souls.
Saif Allah Al Ansari killed dozens after he detonated a bomb in football stadium
A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest detonated himself at an
informal soccer match in a stadium in Iskandiriyam a town 40 km (25
miles) south of Baghdad.
Heartbreaking :Video for Moment of the suicide blast in football stadium . pic.twitter.com/8cReYQNRrv— Ammar karim (@ammar_afp) March 25, 2016
The attack has killed at least 24 people and wounded 80 more, a spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Interior told reporters.
Eyewitnesses told local media that the suicide bomber blew up
himself at the end of a match when the players waited for awards. Most
of the causalities were young males.
The Islamic State (IS) group’s media wing, Amaq news, said IS took responsibility for the attack.
A video of the blast has circulated online that showed moments before the attack.
The blast took place in a mixed Sunni and Shia Muslim town during the end of a football match.
Iskandriya is a small city that used to be a part of what was called the "triangle of death", where thousands of Shia were slaughtered during the peak of the sectarian war in 2006-2007.
Iskandiriya and the towns in the "Triangle of Death" are
under Iraqi government control but IS cells and other Sunni insurgents
operate there, as Sunnis represent the majority in these towns.
Iraqi forces on Thursday launched an offensive to retake the
northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) group, the Iraqi army
said in a statement broadcast on state television.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the joint operations
command, told state TV that Iraqi army forces and allied militia
fighters backed by airstrikes had already recaptured several villages.
"The first phase of the Fatah [Conquest] Operation has been
launched at dawn to liberate Nineveh, raising the Iraqi flag in several
villages," the statement said.
The army said that four villages had been captured between its base at Makhmour and the still IS-held town of Qayyarah.
Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region
have also been heavily involved in the campaign against IS in northern
Iraq.
The peshmerga deputy commander for the sector, Araz Mirkhan,
confirmed to the AFP news agency on Thursday that the offensive had
started.
"Iraq forces in Makhmur have begun their advance towards Qayyarah to the south of Mosul."
The US-led coalition said it carried out three airstrikes in the Qayyarah area on Wednesday.
"Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck an ISIL (IS) communication
facility and destroyed an ISIL-used bridge section and denied ISIL
access to terrain," it said in a statement.
It also launched eight strikes in the broader Mosul region.
The blast happened one day after Iraqi forces launched an offensive to retake the northern city of Mosul from IS.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the joint
operations command, told state TV that Iraqi army forces and allied
militia fighters backed by airstrikes had already recaptured several
villages.
"The first phase of the Fatah [Conquest] Operation has been
launched at dawn to liberate Nineveh, raising the Iraqi flag in several
villages," the statement said.
The army said that four villages had been captured between its base at Makhmour and the still IS-held town of Qayyarah.
Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region
have also been heavily involved in the campaign against IS in northern
Iraq.
The peshmerga deputy commander for the sector, Araz Mirkhan,
confirmed to the AFP news agency on Thursday that the offensive had
started.
"Iraq forces in Makhmur have begun their advance towards Qayyarah to the south of Mosul."
Most of the victims Of the football stadium are young boys pic.twitter.com/CundJGOFoc— Ammar karim (@ammar_afp) March 25, 2016
The US-led coalition said it carried out three airstrikes in the Qayyarah area on Wednesday.
"Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck an ISIL (IS) communication
facility and destroyed an ISIL-used bridge section and denied ISIL
access to terrain," it said in a statement.
It also launched eight strikes in the broader Mosul region.
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