News / Iraq

Booby trap bomb leaves over two dozen civilians dead in Iraqi house

Friday, 01 December 2017 2:15 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 01 December 2017 3:15 PM ]

A picture shows the damage following a twin bomb attack at shopping area in Iraq's oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk on November 5, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

More than two dozen civilians have lost their lives when a house rigged with explosives blew up in Iraq’s embattled western province of Anbar as government troops, backed by allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, are engaged in a large-scale military operation to dislodge the remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group from their hideouts in the desert in northern Iraq.

The Deputy Governor of Rawah, Hussain Ali, told Arabic-language Baghdad Today news agency on Friday that 25 people were killed by a “house-borne improvised explosive device” in the recently-liberated Rawah town.

He added that local authorities have called upon the central government in Baghdad as well as provincial officials to dispatch bomb disposal units to the area as the number of explosive devices left by Daesh Takfiris is very high.

Ali further noted that internally displaced families cannot be repatriated to Rawah since many districts are still infested with hidden bombs and military ordnance.

Armored personnel carriers (APCs) of the Iraqi forces and Popular Mobilization Units (Hashd al-Sha’abi) advance through Anbar province, 20 kilometers east of the city of Rawah in the western desert bordering Syria, on November 25, 2017, in a bid to flush out remaining Daesh Takfiri terrorist in the al-Jazira region. (Photo by AFP)

On November 17, army troops and pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Units – also known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi – had completely retaken Rawah, located about 300 kilometers northwest of the capital Baghdad, and hoisted the national Iraqi flag over a number of buildings there.

The commander of Upper Euphrates and al-Jazira Liberation Operations, Major General Abdul Amir Yarallah, announced on November 23 the launch of the second phase of the offensive aimed at clearing the vast desert near the border with Syria, which extends to the northern provinces of Nineveh and Salahuddin and the western province of Anbar.

The forces ended the first phase of the offensive on November 17, when they drove out the Daesh extremists from their last urban stronghold in Iraq and raised the Iraqi flag over buildings in the western town of Rawah and nearby border areas north of the Euphrates River.

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