Iraqis secure and investigate the site of a twin suicide bombing in a crowded market of Baghdad’s Bab al-Sharqi district yesterday, January 21, 2021 (Ivor Prickett, New York Times)
At least 32 people were killed and over 100 wounded in a crowded market of Baghdad’s Bab al-Sharqi district on Thursday in twin suicide bombings. The first bomber pretended to be ill and collapsed, drawing a crowd of concerned passerby, before detonating his suicide vest. The second bomber arrived at the site shortly afterward as a crowd gathered to render aid, detonating a second suicide vest and killing several more people. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, the worst in Iraq’s capital since 2017.
The Islamic State has often targeted Shi’a Muslim communities during it’s decade-long insurgency. Many experts believe that the weakening of Iraq’s defense forces due to COVID-19 and the drawdown of US military presence in the capital is giving the remnants of the defeated Caliphate an opportunity to resurface as a veritable terrorist organization. Iraqi Prime Minister al-Khademi fired the commanders of his nation’s federal police force and Intelligence and Security Department on Friday.
Also on Friday, Turkish jets were seen and heard flying over the Chamanke region of Iraqi Kurdistan in Duhok province, as well as the Balakayati region of Erbil Province near the Iranian border, followed by airstrikes that injured three civilians, including two children, and killing hundreds of sheep in a barn. Turkey claims it “neutralized” four PKK fighters in the strike.
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The PKK have fought an intermittent insurgency against the Turkish government since the 1980’s, and most recently with Turkish President Erdogan’s Islamist government since 2015, although PKK attacks against the government have dropped significantly since the militia pivoted from its Turkish insurgency to defending Kurds and Yezidis in Iraq and Syria. Despite this, Erdogan still insists that the PKK is a threat to the Turkish people and has used the group’s activities in Syria and Iraq to justify unsanctioned military action since 2015. Over 500 Kurdish villiages in Iraq have been abandoned due to Turkish and Iranian military action since 1992, when a no-fly zone went into effect over the Kurdistan region in the wake of the First Gulf War.
We ask the global Maranatha family to be in prayer for the people of Bagdad and Kurdistan, who continue to live in the shadow of Turkish warplanes and ISIS suicide bombers. We pray for the schemes and plots of violent men to be exposed and thwarted, for protection over civilians, Peshmerga and US military personnel in Iraq, and for each crisis and catastrophe to open doors for Good News about a Prince of Peace.
Maranatha.
