For the second time in less than a week, militants loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) umbrella group have seized control of a Baghdad neighborhood, this time Mansur, and have raised the flag of the ISI over the region.
Today’s attack saw at least five policement killed at a checkpoint in the neighborhood in a pre-dawn attack, just one of several attacks across the city which left 53 killed and 123 wounded.
The move seems to be part of a previously unseen strategy by the group, which is linked to the al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) faction. The previous attack, on Thursday, saw the militants kill some 23 security forces in a gunbattle in another Sunni neighborhood before raising their flag.
Elsewhere in Iraq, a triple car bombing attack in Kut left at least 33 people dead and 85 others wounded. So far it is unclear who was responsible for the attacks.
