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             Islamic State Retaliates With Car Bombings in Baghdad

   by Jamie Dettmer

   Islamic State militants have returned to using vehicle-borne improvised
   explosive devices for a bombing campaign in Baghdad and elsewhere in
   Iraq.

   The terror group staged five attacks Sunday, including one at a natural
   gas facility north of the capital killing at least 15 people, Iraqi
   security officials say. The five attacks left more than 100 Iraqis
   dead.

   For most of this year, the militants had been using bombers wearing
   suicide vests to trigger blasts, but since April, IS has again started
   to trigger massive car bombs, and the resurgence suggests a weakening
   ability of the Iraqi Security Forces, distracted by political protests,
   to protect the greater Baghdad area.

   ''

   According to Patrick Martin, an analyst with the Washington-based
   Institute for the Study of War, the blasts are aimed at further roiling
   Iraqi politics and undermining an increasingly fragile government.

   "These explosive attacks will play a major factor in the ongoing
   political dynamics in Baghdad and aggravate already tense relations
   between the government and protesters, if the government fails to
   guarantee basic security in the city," he said.

   As far as Iraqi officials are concerned, the attacks are a sign of IS
   desperation, retaliation for the recent battlefield setbacks the group
   has suffered in Iraq and neighboring Syria. Last Wednesday, three
   separate car bombings in Baghdad killed at least 93 people in one of
   the deadliest days in Iraq this year.

   Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has acknowledged IS is seeking to take
   advantage of the country's political crisis over the pace of political
   reform and the overhaul of a quota-based governing system.

   Militants desperate, deadly

   U.S. officials also have been hammering the argument the series of
   increasingly deadly attacks in Iraq should be seen as the militants'
   effort to make up for the loss of territory in their self-styled
   caliphate. At a news conference Sunday in Baghdad, Brett McGurk,
   President Obama's envoy to the 66-member international anti-IS
   coalition, said, "This perverse caliphate is shrinking."

   IS, however, is showing it remains a vicious and unpredictable foe that
   is quick to exploit any weaknesses shown by enemies.

   The terrorist-style attacks in Iraq have focused on softer, civilian
   targets. The bombing near Latifiyah was at a shopping area. Elsewhere
   in Baghdad, three separate bomb attacks targeted commercial areas,
   killing at least eight civilians and wounding 28 others, Iraqi
   officials said.

   ''

   The attack on the state-run natural gas plant at Taji in Baghdad's
   northern outskirts forced two power stations to suspend electricity
   production. That coordinated attack began when a vehicle exploded at
   the entrance to the gas facility - allowing another one carrying six
   bombers with explosive vests to enter the plant. When Iraqi
   reinforcements arrived, the militants set off a vehicle parked nearby.

   IS has also been launching new ground offensives.

   Attack, counterattack

   In Syria, a re-grouping of militant forces near the ancient city of
   Palmyra, which saw IS severing a major supply route last week from the
   city of Homs, has prompted a fierce military response from the
   government of Bashar al-Assad, say local activists.

   Russian and Syrian warplanes have been launching airstrikes on the
   militants, who have made major advances in the al-Mazar Mountains
   northwest of Palmyra, which Syrian government troops recaptured in
   March.

   ''

   IS fighters are now within 10 kilometers of Palmyra and surrounding the
   city on three sides. Additionally, the group has launched a concerted
   assault on government strongholds in the eastern Syrian city of Deir
   al-Zor.

   U.S. envoy McGurk said the coalition will not let up pressure on IS. He
   said significant intelligence gathered by U.S. Special Forces in a raid
   in eastern Syria last year has assisted the coalition in better
   targeting militant leaders.

   "We will be beginning over the coming weeks and months a pressure
   campaign on Raqqa in all its aspects," he said, referring to the de
   facto IS capital in Syria.

   And in Iraq, McGurk said, "We are doing precision strikes in Mosul
   almost every day. There is constant synchronized pressure."


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   bing-in-baghdad/3332067.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/islamic-state-retaliates-with-car-bombing-in-baghdad/3332067.html