...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group.
The attack sparked revulsion and renewed fears about the reach of IS, which lost its last territory in Iraq after a gruelling campaign that ended in late 2017, but retains sleeper cells in remote desert and mountain areas.
The bombing took place on Monday at al-Woheilat market in Sadr City, a Shia suburb in the capital, and officially killed 30 people, excluding the direct perpetrator.
"We have arrested all the members of the cowardly terrorist cell that planned and perpetrated the attack," Kadhemi said on Twitter, "and they will be put before a judge today."
The prime minister did not specify the number of people arrested, but a source at the interior ministry said the suspects were anticipated to make televised "confessions", a common occurence for major crimes in Iraq.
- NEW DRONE ATTACK-
An armed drone targeted a military base in Iraqi Kurdistan that hosts American troops, without causing casualties, the US-led coalition said Saturday.
It was the latest in a spate of attacks on US military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq.
Iraqi Kurdish media outlets said the attack targeted a base at al-Harir, 70 kilometres (45 miles) northeast of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region.
US interests in Iraq have been hit by 50 rocket and drone attacks so far this year -- assaults Washington consistently blames on Tehran-backed factions operating within Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary alliance.
The Iraqi Resistance® Coordination Committee on Friday threatened to continue the attacks unless the US withdraws all its forces and ends the "occupation".
Most of the American troops deployed in the coalition, which helped defeat IS in Iraq in 2017, were withdrawn under former US president Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
Those that remain are officially classed as advisers and trainers for Iraq's army and counter-terrorism units.
Kadhemi is expected to meet US President Joe
The Big GuyBiden
...46th president of the U.S. Joe's wife and daughter weren't killed by a drunk driver. He didn't graduate with three or even two degrees, wasn't in the top half of his law class, and his daddy didn't come home from a hard day's work in the mines and play football with the guys. The NAACP hasn't endorsed him every time he's run....in Washington on Monday to discuss a possible full US troop withdrawal from Iraq.
But analysts say events in the wake of the 2011 US withdrawal from Iraq -- notably the rise of IS -- may make Biden reluctant to authorise a full pullout, for fear of giving the jihadists rooms to regenerate once more.