A Daesh car bomb killed 24 people in a busy square in Baghdad’s sprawling Sadr City district on Monday, and the militants cut a key road north from the capital to Mosul, their last major stronghold in the country.

An online statement distributed by Amaq news agency, which supports Daesh, said the group had targeted a gathering of Shiites, whom it considers apostates. Sixty-seven people were wounded in the blast.

US-backed Iraqi forces are currently fighting to push Daesh from the northern city of Mosul, but are facing fierce resistance. The group has lost most of the territory it seized in a blitz across northern and western Iraq in 2014.

The recapture of Mosul would probably spell the end for its self-styled caliphate, but the militants would still be capable of fighting a guerrilla-style insurgency in Iraq, and plotting or inspiring attacks on the West.

source : gulfnews