Claiming that “This perverse caliphate is shrinking” referring to the Islamic State, the

Obama administration’s diplomatic point man in the international fight against the terrorist group has said the extremists have been losing control over territory.

However in Iraq a string of bomb attacks in or close to the capital killed 15 people while 14 people were killed in after the Isis launched a coordinated assault on a natural gas plant north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

The tide was turning against extremists, both online and on the battle field, Brett McGurk, a presidential envoy to the 66-member anti-Isis coalition, told a news conference on Sunday.

McGurk said that Jordan has been publishing anti-Isis propaganda and helping gather intelligence and had been contributing by conducting weekly airstrikes. Jordan is shares the borders with Iraq and Syria where Isis holds large areas under its command.

With loss of their territories in both Iraq and Syria, the extremists have suffered recent some major military setbacks. At the same time there has been an increase in insurgency-style attacks in Iraq as the global affiliates of the group appear to have grown in strength. Situated about 12 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber hitting the facility’s main gate in the town of Taji started off the attack on the gas plant at dawn on Sunday. Following the initial attack, there were clashes with the security forces after several suicide bombers and militants broke into the plant. An Iraqi official said that 27 troops were wounded in the ensuing clashes.

A group of “Caliphate soldiers” were credited with the attack by the Isis-affiliated Aamaq news agency.

Firefighters managed to control and extinguish a fire caused by the explosions, said Iraqi deputy oil minister Hamid Younis in a statement. Younis said technicians were examining the damage.

Seven people,  including two soldiers, were killed when a car bomb targeted a shopping area in the town of Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of the capital, police and hospital officials said. The sources also said that 18 people were also wounded among whom there were four soldiers.

Police said that at least eight civilians were killed and 28 others wounded in three separate bomb attacks targeted commercial areas elsewhere in Baghdad. The casualty figures were confirmed by medical officials.  None of the sources who were quoted by the media wanted to be named for security reasons and for reasons of related to their authority to speak on the issue.

The Sunday attacks killed 29 people across Iraq. In a spate of bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere more than 140 people have been killed since Wednesday. Including the second-largest city, Mosul, Isis extremists still control significant areas in northern and western Iraq. In the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria, the group has declared an Islamic caliphate. In a campaign that Iraqi officials say is an attempt to distract from their recent battlefield losses, Isis has recently increased its attacks far from the front lines.

(Adapted from The Guardian)

Categories: Geopolitics