5 killed, 13 injured in Baghdad car bomb explosion

First Lieutenant Hatem al-Jaberi said 13 people also sustained injuries on Friday evening, when an explosives-laden car went off near a popular outdoor market in Baghdad’s northwestern neighborhood of al-Shu'ala, Kurdish-language Rudaw television network reported.

Security forces immediately cordoned off the scene of the explosion, and ambulances carried the injured to nearby hospitals to receive medical treatment.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the bombing, but such attacks are usually blamed on Takfiri Daesh terrorists.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says a total of 386 Iraqis were killed and another 1,066 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict last month.

According to the UN mission, the number of civilian fatalities stood at 385 in December 2016. Violence also left 1,060 people – not including police personnel – injured.

A great portion of the fatalities was recorded in the northern province of Nineveh, where 208 civilians were killed. Terrorist attacks also left another 511 injured there.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been in chaos ever since Daesh started its campaign of terror in early June 2014.

Iraqi army soldiers, supported by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units – commonly known by the Arabic world Hashd al-Sha’abi – and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched a joint operation on October 17 to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

A total of 129,642 civilians have been displaced from Mosul and neighboring areas ever since the start of the operations, according to figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday.

KD