Suicide bombing at Iraqi funeral kills at least 27 – Warning on Mosul dam collapse

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BAGHDAD, Feb 29, (Agencies): A suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral for the relative of a Shi’ite Muslim militia commander in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala on Monday, killing at least 27 people in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

The bombing in Muqdadiya, 80 kms (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, killed six local commanders of the Hashid Shaabi umbrella group of Shi’ite militias who were attending the funeral ceremony, security officials and police in Diyala said. Islamic State, an ultra-hardline Sunni group that controls large parts of northern and western Iraq, claimed responsibility for the blast, according to a statement posted on the SITE monitoring group’s Twitter account.

The killing of the commanders, four of whom were from the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia and two from the Badr Organisation, is likely to inflame sectarian tensions in the mixed province. Security officials and witnesses said the situation inside Muqdadiya was tense, with dozens of Shi’ite militia members deployed in the streets and security forces absent.

Militia elements have been accused of attacking Sunni Muslim mosques and residents in Diyala following similar bombings in January, but the groups have denied the allegations and blamed Islamic State. Iraqi officials declared victory  over the Sunni insurgents in Diyala a year ago, but although it no longer controls signifi cant territory in the eastern province, Islamic State has remained active there. The attack follows the deadliest bombing inside the capital Baghdad so far this year, which left 78 people dead in a Shi’ite district on Sunday.

The US embassy in Iraq has released evacuation recommendations it said could help save up to 1.5 million lives at risk from a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam. Concern has grown in recent months over a possible collapse of Iraq’s largest dam, which would unleash a wave that would devastate second city Mosul and flood much of the capital Baghdad.

The dam in northern Iraq was built on an unstable foundation that continuously erodes, and a lapse in required maintenance after the Islamic State jihadist group briefly seized it in 2014 weakened the already fl awed structure. “We have no specifi c information that indicates when a breach might occur,” the US embassy said in a statement posted on its website late Sunday. “But out of an abundance of caution, we would like to underscore that prompt evacuation offers the most effective tool to save lives of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis living in the most dangerous part of the flood path in the event of a breach.”

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