IS attack, bombings kill 29 across Iraq

Associated Press

BAGHDAD

The Islamic State group launched a coordinated assault Sunday on a natural-gas plant north of Baghdad that killed at least 14 people, while a string of other bomb attacks in or close to the capital killed 15 others, Iraqi officials said.

The dawn attack on the gas plant began with a suicide car bombing at the facility’s main gate in the town of Taji, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad. Several suicide bombers and militants then broke into the plant and clashed with security forces. The dead included six civilians and eight security forces; 27 troops were wounded.

The IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency credited a group of “caliphate soldiers” for the attack.

Closed-circuit television images showed as an explosion hit inside the facility. As flames engulfed the facility, pedestrians ran for cover.

Elsewhere, four separate bomb attacks left another 15 people dead and 46 wounded in the fifth-straight day of IS-claimed attacks in and around the Iraqi capital. Since Wednesday, more than 140 people have been killed in a spate of bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere.

The wave of attacks comes as Iraqi ground forces have achieved a number of key territorial victories against the extremist group.

Brett McGurk, the Obama administration’s diplomatic point man in the international fight against the Islamic State group, told journalists in Jordan that the tide was turning against extremists.