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WORLD NEWSFriday 10 March 2017

Twin suicide bombing kills 26 at a wedding north of Baghdad

Three roadside bombs laid by Islamic State group militants explode in a western Mosul neighbour- place late Wednesday, IS had captured Tikrit dur-
hood, killing one of the Iraqi engineers attempting to diffuse the devices. Iraq, Wednesday, March began when one suicide
8, 2017. A twin suicide bombing struck a village wedding north of Baghdad as the wedding party bomber wearing an ex- ing its blitz across Iraq in the
gathered in the evening hours, killing at least 26 people and wounding dozens, a government plosives-laden belt walked
spokesman said Thursday. into the wedding party as- summer of 2014 when the
sembled in an open area in
(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) Hajaj, near the city of Tikrit, Sunni militant group seized
about 130 kilometers (80
SINAN SALAHEDDIN village wedding north of people and wounding doz- miles) from Baghdad. nearly a third of the coun-
Associated Press Baghdad as the wedding ens, a government spokes- The bomber detonated
BAGHDAD (AP) — A twin party gathered in the eve- man said Thursday. his explosives, only to be try’s territory. Iraqi forces
suicide bombing struck a ning hours, killing at least 26 The attack, which took followed by the second drove the militants from the
attacker who blew him- city in April 2015, but IS has
self up when people had since then managed to
gathered to help the vic- launch deadly attacks in
tims of the first explosion, and around Tikrit.
provincial spokesman Ali IS has also used large-scale
al-Hamdani told The As- attacks in an effort to dis-
sociated Press. He said 26 tract from its losses as Iraqi
people were killed, most of forces battle to retake all
them children, and up to of Mosul, the country’s sec-
67 were wounded. There ond-largest city, from the
was no immediate claim of group. Iraqi forces in Mosul
responsibility for the attack have over the past week
but suspicion is likely to fall fought their way into the
on the Islamic State group, heart of the western part of
which has staged similar at- the city, separated by the
tacks in the past. The wed- Tigris River from the eastern
ding party was for a family sector, capturing a gov-
that had been displaced ernment complex and the
from Iraq’s western Anbar city’s antiquities museum
province and that is affiliat- where IS had destroyed
ed with a major anti-IS tribe priceless relics. Mosul also
there. fell to IS in the summer of
2014, along with Tikrit and
large swaths of northern
and western Iraq, but now
remains the militant group’s
last significant urban area
in the country.q

Turkey warns US relations at risk if Kurds help retake Raqqa

JOSH LEDERMAN battle-hardened Kurdish tious about this issue.” troops in Syria and is aid- info, and diplomatically
Associated Press forces, Yildirim insisted Tur- ing other Syrian opposition speaking this message was
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — key wouldn’t be part of any In an earlier exchange with fighters, has thus far failed also passed along.”
The United States risks ma- operation including the Syr- to show that it has a force Turkey views the main Kurd-
jor damage to its relation- ian Kurdish force known as visiting foreign journalists, sufficiently large and capa- ish force — the People’s
ship with NATO ally Turkey the YPG, considered by Yildirim said ties between ble to liberate Raqqa, the Protection Units, or YPG
if the U.S. includes Kurdish Ankara to be terrorists who the two countries would be largest remaining IS strong- — to be terrorists because
forces in the fight to retake threaten Turkey’s security. significantly undermined, hold. of their ties to Turkey’s out-
Raqqa, the Islamic State “If the U.S. were to prefer though he declined to Yildirim insisted Turkey has lawed Kurdistan Workers’
group’s de facto capital, terrorist organizations over name any specific steps proven its mettle, pointing Party, or PKK, which the
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Turkey in the fight against Turkey — a member of the to victories by its Operation U.S. also considers to be a
Yildirim said Thursday. IS, that would be their own U.S.-led coalition fighting IS Euphrates Shield in liberat- terrorist group. But the top
Turkey and the U.S. are decision, but that wouldn’t — might take in response. ing northern Syrian towns of American commander for
locked in a heated dispute be something we would In the past, Turkey has hint- Jarabulus and al-Bab. Yet the fight against IS has said
about U.S. plans to liberate consent” to, Yildirim told ed it could cut off access in al-Bab, in particular, Turk- he’s seen “zero evidence”
Raqqa, with Turkey insisting The Associated Press. to Incirlik air base, home to ish troops and allied Syrian the YPG has posed a re-
its own military and allied The prime minister also took coalition warplanes. fighters suffered heavy ca- cent threat to Turkey.
forces in Syria should mount issue with President Donald sualties in a grueling three- Yildirim said Turkey is still
the fight and that U.S.- Trump’s use of the phrase Though no decision has month fight to liberate the awaiting a U.S. decision
backed Syrian Kurds should “radical Islamic terrorism” city from IS. on Raqqa, and there are
be excluded. Though the and said “we would be ac- been formally announced, “They know what our ca- signs such a decision could
U.S. has been hoping to in- tually happy if our friends pabilities are,” Yildirim said. come soon. q
clude both Turkey and the were to be a bit more cau- the U.S. has been sending “We’ve exchanged military

signals that it is inclined to

rely on the Kurdish forces,

who have proven the most

effective local force at bat-

tling IS. U.S. officials have

said that Turkey, which has