At least 100 people, most of them Shia Iranian pilgrims, have been killed by a suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State near the Iraqi city of Hilla in the south of Baghdad, in the deadliest single attack on Iranian nationals by the Sunni jihadi group.
A suicide truck bomb packed with 500 litres of ammonium nitrate exploded on Thursday at a petrol station where several buses carrying Iranian pilgrims on their way back from the city of Karbala had parked. Hilla is situated between Karbala and Najaf, two cities home to important religious sites for Shias.
Iran’s semi-official Isna news agency said as many as 50 Iranians were believed to have been killed in the bombing, which also shattered a nearby restaurant. “The Iranian pilgrims martyred were inside a bus,” a source told Isna.
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Islamic State, also known as Isis, which considers all Shias apostates issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. According to the SITE Intelligence Group, the statement said the suicide bomber “blew up his vehicle amidst their assembly, inflicting among them more than 200 killed and wounded, including Iranians”.
Falah al-Radhi, a security official for the province affected by the attack, said most of the people killed were Iranian nationals. “A large truck exploded among them. It was a suicide attack,” he told AFP. “There are completely charred corpses at the scene.” Scores of wounded people were transferred to hospitals.
The bombing was seen as a retaliation – albeit on a foreign territory – to Tehran's campaign against the group. Although Iran is extensively involved in the fight against Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, it has remained largely untouched by suicide bombings. Islamic State attacks such as those in Paris last November or in major cities in the Middle East are unheard of in the Iranian capital.
In Iraq, however, they are a regular occurrence. In July, a bomb claimed by the group killed about 300 people, one of the worst atrocities to have hit the country since 2003.
About 3 million Iranians are believed to have travelled to Iraq this week for the annual Shia commemoration of Arbaeen, an important day in the Shia Muslim calendar.
Mosul
News of the bombing came as fighting continued in the northern city and Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, where a US-backed ground offensive by the Iraqi army is inching closer to more besieged parts of the city. As they lose ground in Mosul, the jihadis have intensified their attacks in other parts of Iraq.
Islamic State has suffered major blows at the hands of the Iraqi army, supported by Iran-backed Shia militias and Kurdish peshmerga, in the five weeks since the Mosul offensive was launched.
“The Iraqi advance on the south and southeast of the city has started to pick up some steam, which we think is a really great development,” John Dorrian, a coalition spokesman was quoted as saying by the AFP, which reported that Iraqi forces were battling against Islamic State in the neighbourhood of Khadraa on Thursday.
Iran’s involvement in the campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is carried by the Quds force, an external arm of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards led by its commander, Qasem Soleimani, who wields huge influence among Shia militias in both countries.
Compared with Iraq, where Iran’s involvement is regarded as helpful by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, its role in Syria is more controversial. Iran has been a staunch ally of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and has been accused of helping him quell opposition.
Iran is hoping that US president-elect, Donald Trump, might change his country’s approach on Syria, shifting away from a focus on removing Mr Assad and instead helping the Syrian army in pushing back Islamic State from Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State “caliphate”. Mr Trump has said he is open to warming relations with Russia, which is allied with Tehran, over Syria.
Iranian leaders insist their forces in both countries act only as military advisers, invited by their central governments, but the rising death toll in Iran points to a greater involvement.
This week, Mohammad-Ali Shahidi Mahallati, head of Iran’s foundation of martyrs, said: “The number of Iran’s martyrs as defenders of shrine has exceeded 1,000.” He was using Iranian terminology for guard forces sent by Iran to Syria.
Iran has also controversially recruited hundreds of Afghan refugees living in Iran to be sent to Syria.
Guardian service