Eleven people, including members of the security forces, were killed late Sunday (November 8) in a jihadist attack on a military position at the western entrance to Baghdad, police and medical sources reported.
“Five members of the tribal Hachd”, units of former paramilitaries now integrated into the State, “Were killed, as well as six inhabitants who came to lend a hand”, reported a police source to Agence France-Presse (AFP). A medical source confirmed this toll, adding that eight wounded had been admitted to a hospital in Baghdad.
The attack began with “Grenade fire at an observation turret of the tribal Hachd by elements of the Islamic State (IS)”, said the police source. The nighttime attack has so far not been officially claimed.
A rare record
ISIS had succeeded in seizing in 2014 almost a third of Iraqi territory, which it was forced to abandon at the end of 2017, driven from its “Caliphate” self-proclaimed by three years of war mobilizing all Iraqi troops and an international coalition of 76 countries.
Now, its fighters are holed up in mountainous or desert areas in the center and west of the country and have largely lost their ability to carry out large-scale attacks. The jihadist organization still has clandestine cells, in particular in the great agricultural belt of Baghdad, where Radouaniya is located, the village theater of this attack.
If they continue to carry out forceful attacks here and there, a death toll of eleven is particularly rare in the country, which has not experienced a major attack for more than three years.
