Islamic State attacks in northern Iraq kill 16, sources say

Shooting and bomb attacks claimed by Islamic State killed at least 16 people in northern Iraq on Friday days after the group’s deadliest blasts so far this year in the capital stirred public criticism of government security measures.

Three gunmen opened fire with machine guns around midnight at a cafe in the predominately Shi’ite Muslim town of Balad where young men had gathered for the start of the weekend, according to police and hospital sources. At least 12 were killed and 25 wounded.

The assailants fled and hours later one of them set off his explosive vest at a nearby vegetable market after police and Shi’ite militia members cornered him in a disused building and exchanged gunfire, security sources said. Four were killed and two critically wounded, medical sources added.

Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, said three suicide attackers targeting Shi’ite militiamen had detonated their explosives.

“Yesterday was a bloody day, which I cannot describe in words. A man holding a machine-gun walked into the cafe and opened fire randomly on people. He also threw hand grenades. He sprayed people with a hail of bullets randomly. Two of the people who were sitting in front were killed in addition to three or four people who were sitting here,” said Qusay Mohammed, one of the cafe employees.

Friday’s attackers had passed three police checkpoints before reaching their target, said police sources who declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Security forces deployed throughout the town, fearing more attacks.

An intelligence source said fighters from the powerful Iranian-backed Badr Organisation raided a nearby house and detained 13 members of a Sunni family. There were reports of gunfire in an adjacent orchard.

Iraqi authorities are facing scrutiny over security breaches that allowed suicide attackers to set off three bombs on Wednesday in Baghdad, killing at least 80 people.

The country is also struggling through a political crisis over a cabinet overhaul that has crippled government for weeks and threatens to undermine the U.S.-backed war against Islamic State, which still controls swathes of territory in the north and west it seized in 2014.

The fight against the ultra-hardline Sunni militants has exacerbated Iraq’s sectarian conflict, mostly between the Sunni minority and the Shi’ite majority, that emerged after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.