Iraq: ISIS Claims Attacks in Nasiriyah That Kill 84, Injure Nearly 100 | Democracy Now!

17.9.17

Iraq: ISIS Claims Attacks in Nasiriyah That Kill 84, Injure Nearly 100 | Democracy Now!: In Iraq, suicide attackers fanned out across the southern city of Nasiriyah Thursday, killing at least 84 people and wounding nearly 100 others. The attack was claimed by ISIS and largely targeted Shia Muslims from Iran on a pilgrimage to holy sites in Najaf and Karbala. This is Firas Ahmed, an eyewitness to some of the attacks.

Firas Ahmed: "There were four buses of Iranian pilgrims. The gunmen boarded buses and spayed those who were inside with bullets, while others in pickup trucks drove by, firing on the people. Then they walked into the restaurant, opening fire on the people inside, the young and the old, sparing no one. All the people who were here were killed."

In another attack, men in stolen army vehicles wearing military uniforms used a suicide car bomb to target a checkpoint. The violence comes after U.S.-backed Kurdish and Iraqi forces have seized much of ISIS’s territory in Iraq, and after an Iraqi intelligence report found more than 40,000 civilians died in the U.S.-led battle to retake Mosul from ISIS.