AFP, Nasiriyah :
Gunmen and suicide bombers killed at least 84 people in southern Iraq in the deadliest attack by the Islamic State group since it lost second city Mosul, according to a new toll released on Friday.
Many of the dead in Thursday’s attack near the city of Nasiriyah were Shiite Muslim pilgrims, some of them Iranian, officials said.
“The death toll has risen to 84 after the discovery of 10 more bodies at the scene of the attack,” said Jassem al-Khalidi, health director for Dhiqar province, which has largely been spared the violence that has plagued northern and central Iraq.
“Another 93 people were wounded, many of them seriously,” Khalidi told AFP.
The assailants struck at midday, opening fire on a restaurant before getting into a car and blowing themselves up at a nearby security checkpoint, officials said.
They left a trail of destruction, with charred bodies scattered on the ground near the burnt-out wrecks of cars, buses and trucks, an AFP correspondent reported. The attack was quickly claimed by IS, which appears to be switching to insurgent attacks after suffering a string of setbacks on the battlefield.
UN envoy Jan Kubis condemned the “cowardly twin attacks… which resulted in numerous civilian casualties, including many pilgrims.” Shiites have been the target of repeated attack by the Sunni extremists of IS who regard them as heretics.
The area targeted by Thursday’s attack lies on a highway used by Shiite pilgrims from Iran and southern Iraq to travel to the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala further north.
Security sources said the attackers were disguised as members of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a mainly Shiite paramilitary alliance which has fought alongside the army and police against IS in northern Iraq.
Rescue workers and members of the security forces placed bodies in ambulances and cleared away rubble and the carcasses of burnt-out cars from the site.
Burned bodies and vehicles including buses and trucks testified to the violence of the attack. Shelters built of corrugated metal were reduced to scraps of metal, twisted by heat.
The area targeted is on a highway used by Shiite pilgrims and visitors from neighbouring Iran to travel to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala further north, although Dhiqar has previously been spared the worst of Iraq’s violence. IS claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement carried by its Amaq propaganda arm.
It said several suicide bombers had staged the assault on a restaurant and a security checkpoint, killing “dozens of Shiites”.
The Sunni extremist group regularly stages attacks in Iraq, where it has lost swathes of territory to US-backed pro-government forces.
Adding to the pressure on the jihadists, Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Tal Afar and the surrounding region from IS on August 31.
Thursday’s attacks come as Iraqi forces backed by tribal fighters closed in one of the last IS bastions in the country: Al-Qaim area on the border with war-ravaged Syria.
On Wednesday, an AFP correspondent in that area saw several artillery units positioning themselves around the towns of Rawa and Anna, 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the border with Syria.
Gunmen and suicide bombers killed at least 84 people in southern Iraq in the deadliest attack by the Islamic State group since it lost second city Mosul, according to a new toll released on Friday.
Many of the dead in Thursday’s attack near the city of Nasiriyah were Shiite Muslim pilgrims, some of them Iranian, officials said.
“The death toll has risen to 84 after the discovery of 10 more bodies at the scene of the attack,” said Jassem al-Khalidi, health director for Dhiqar province, which has largely been spared the violence that has plagued northern and central Iraq.
“Another 93 people were wounded, many of them seriously,” Khalidi told AFP.
The assailants struck at midday, opening fire on a restaurant before getting into a car and blowing themselves up at a nearby security checkpoint, officials said.
They left a trail of destruction, with charred bodies scattered on the ground near the burnt-out wrecks of cars, buses and trucks, an AFP correspondent reported. The attack was quickly claimed by IS, which appears to be switching to insurgent attacks after suffering a string of setbacks on the battlefield.
UN envoy Jan Kubis condemned the “cowardly twin attacks… which resulted in numerous civilian casualties, including many pilgrims.” Shiites have been the target of repeated attack by the Sunni extremists of IS who regard them as heretics.
The area targeted by Thursday’s attack lies on a highway used by Shiite pilgrims from Iran and southern Iraq to travel to the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala further north.
Security sources said the attackers were disguised as members of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a mainly Shiite paramilitary alliance which has fought alongside the army and police against IS in northern Iraq.
Rescue workers and members of the security forces placed bodies in ambulances and cleared away rubble and the carcasses of burnt-out cars from the site.
Burned bodies and vehicles including buses and trucks testified to the violence of the attack. Shelters built of corrugated metal were reduced to scraps of metal, twisted by heat.
The area targeted is on a highway used by Shiite pilgrims and visitors from neighbouring Iran to travel to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala further north, although Dhiqar has previously been spared the worst of Iraq’s violence. IS claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement carried by its Amaq propaganda arm.
It said several suicide bombers had staged the assault on a restaurant and a security checkpoint, killing “dozens of Shiites”.
The Sunni extremist group regularly stages attacks in Iraq, where it has lost swathes of territory to US-backed pro-government forces.
Adding to the pressure on the jihadists, Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Tal Afar and the surrounding region from IS on August 31.
Thursday’s attacks come as Iraqi forces backed by tribal fighters closed in one of the last IS bastions in the country: Al-Qaim area on the border with war-ravaged Syria.
On Wednesday, an AFP correspondent in that area saw several artillery units positioning themselves around the towns of Rawa and Anna, 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the border with Syria.
