Massive suicide bombing kills 14 in Iraq’s Mosul

By Ahmed Qassem

NINEVEH, Iraq

At least 14 civilians were killed, including women and children, and another 32 injured in a suicide bombing that rocked Mosul on Wednesday, according to an Iraqi security source.

Iraqi Federal Police officer Adnan al-Khabouri told Anadolu Agency that a suicide bomber driving a bulldozer had blown himself up in the city after being besieged by Iraqi forces.

The bombing also destroyed six homes in the area, al-Khabouri added, without saying whether any losses had been sustained among Iraqi security personnel.

The bombing came only hours after Iraqi authorities announced the recapture of Mosul’s Al-Wihda district from Daesh terrorists.

The terrorist group has come to depend on suicide attacks, car bombs, improvised explosive devices and underground tunnel networks to repulse an ongoing Iraqi army campaign to recapture the Daesh-held city.

Since the campaign began some two and a half months ago, Iraqi forces have reportedly established control over more than a quarter of Mosul, once considered Iraq’s second largest city in terms of population.

Despite initial predictions that the city would be fully retaken by year’s end, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said last week that at least three more months would be needed to decisively extirpate Daesh from Iraq.