…As Boko Haram releases new video showing Chibok girls***
Twin suicide bomb explosions on Monday struck busy area in downtown Baghdad, leaving 27 people killed and 92 others wounded, police and medical sources said.
The Iraq interior ministry said the twin massive blasts were carried out by two suicide bombers during the morning rush hours at a crowded site near al-Tayaran Square.
“Our latest reports said that 27 were killed and 92 wounded by the two blasts in al-Tayaran Square, where many construction workers usually gather waiting for potential employers,’’ the ministry said.
Earlier, the ministry source said that the two blasts were a suicide bombing followed by a roadside bomb, putting the casualties at 16 killed and 67 wounded.
Meanwhile, a medical source told Xinhua that hospitals in Baghdad received the bodies of 27 people and that over 92 others were admitted for treatment from different wounded.
“All the hospitals and medical centers are in high alert to receive the victims of the terrorist attacks in central Baghdad.
“Most of the wounded people have received treatment and many of them left the hospitals,” Abdul-Ghani Saadon, Director-Ggeneral of Health Department of Risafa area in eastern side of Baghdad said.
No group has so far claimed responsibility of the attacks, however, the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, is responsible for deadly attacks targeting crowded areas in Iraq, including markets, cafes and mosques.
Hours after the deadly attacks, Iraqi Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of Iraqi forces Haider al-Abadi orders for the security forces to track the extremist terrorists and bring them to justice.
Al-Abadi held a meeting with commanders of the security forces and the intelligence service of Baghdad and gave his directions “to chase the sleeper cells of terrorists and bring them to justice in order to ensure the security of the citizens.
The car bombing is the second since the beginning of the year in Baghdad city.
It has witnessed tangible improvement in security as the Iraqi security forces managed during the past few months to regain control of strongholds of the extremist ARE militant group across the country.
Over Saturday, a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive-laden motorcycle at the Square of the entrance of the holy Shiite neighbourhood of Kadhmiyah, leaving two people killed and 24 injured, along with destroying 11 cars.
On Dec. 9, 2017, al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.
Nevertheless, remnants of small groups and individuals of IS militants are still capable of carrying out attacks from time to time.
In the meantime, Boko Haram has released two new videos one showing girls purported to be among the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped from their school hostel in April 2014.
The other video shows an aircraft allegedly gunned down by the terror group, drone and other Nigerian military assets. Although the footage did not, however, show how the visibly military hardware were taken down by the insurgents, the group said it was as a result of a week-long battle with the Nigerian troops.
In the video that shows the Chibok girls, tt least three of the group were seen carrying babies. One of the students said: “We are the Chibok girls… . By the grace of Allah, we will not return to you.”
It was not clear when or where the latest message was recorded or whether those who appeared on camera were under duress.
But the woman speaking, her face covered by a veil, said they had all been married by Boko Haram factional leader Abubakar Shekau.
“We live in comfort. He provides us with everything. We lack nothing,” she added.
Shekau is also seen in the video, firing a heavy machine gun and making a 13-minute-long sermon.
The jihadists seized 276 students from the Government Girls Secondary School in the mostly Christian town in Borno state on April 14, 2014, triggering global condemnation.
Fifty-nine of them managed to escape in the hours that followed.
A total of 107 girls have now been either found, rescued or released as part of government negotiations with the Islamic State group affiliate.
On January 4, the Nigerian army said it had rescued one of the girls’ classmates in the remote Pulka region of Borno, near the border with Cameroon.
The Chibok abductees are among thousands of women, girls and boys kidnapped during the conflict, which began in 2009 and has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.6 million.
Additional report from Guardian NG
