There has been no claim of responsibility, but Iraqi officials are blaming ISIS after a Friday attack on a funeral near the town of Yathrib, north of Baghdad. Ten were killed and 50 wounded at the funeral, while three police were killed in an attack on a nearby checkpoint.
The militants overran a checkpoint and hit the funeral Friday evening, opening fire on the mourners. The local hospital reported the slain all had bullet wounds, and that some of the wounded were in critical condition.
Iraqi military reinforcements sealed off the area of the attack, and Salahudin Governor Ammar al-Jaber vowed to see those responsible brought to justice. Though officials all blamed ISIS, ISIS was conspicuously quiet about the allegation.
The investigation is ongoing, and given ISIS’s history of bragging about successful attacks there are reasons to doubt whether they were actually behind this particular attack.
ISIS? Seriously. It is cute how brand names work. There may be no value to the brand — but it still has marketing appeal.
Nobody funds ISIS anymore. Funding by Saudis ended by 2017. There is no local political value, no other known value to this attack.
Other than to rattle Iraqi government that assured US of no need for combat operations against ISIS. Given the location, this is more likely a PKK outfit always available for hire.
It is a troubling event. ISIS is gone.
But the mere fact that terrorists can pick such easy civilian targets — and somebody is providing them with shelter — tells a great deal what foreign occupations do to a country.
Iraq still does not have a functioning local government system capable of providing peace time services and security.
And it will take time to reestablish it, without falling again into the trap of Western style “war on tourism”.
As for Kurdish factor in Iraq, Baghdad must work with Peshmerga Kurds and with Turkey, to isolate PKK outfits that took hold in the area ever since US came in to “liberate” Sinjar.
It is up to Iraq to reestablish regional intelligence links and find out who is behind this attack.
ISIS is blamed for everything that goes wrong in Iraq . It’s the West’s scapegoat in the ME. The West should start blaming itself since it is the cause of it and invents more and more excuses to continue the never ending wars that will outlast the Energizer Bunny.