“The Miqdadiya crime will not go unpunished. Their heinous crimes strengthen our determination to uproot them from Mesopotamia,” Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in a tweet early on Wednesday.
The attack in Diyala province, 90 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, has been blamed on ISIS. By Wednesday morning, the death toll had risen to 15 killed and 17 injured, Firas al-Azzawi, a media representative for Diyala health department, told Rudaw. A woman was among those killed, according to Iraq’s Joint Operations Command.
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr condemned the attack and urged the country’s armed forces to be vigilant in the fight against terrorism instead of focusing on political affairs. “Here is one of the villages of Miqdadiyah that is ravaged by terrorism in the midst of the political conflict,” he tweeted, telling the armed forces they should not leave their stations, “for terrorism is still lurking among the prosperous Iraqis... Wake up, may God have mercy on you, or else terrorism will return.”
Parties affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that underperformed in Iraq’s October 10 parliamentary election have alleged fraud and their supporters have been protesting the results. Sadr, who won the largest amount of votes, is expected to form the ruling bloc in the parliament.
Reacting to the Diyala attack, the PMF leadership said the force is ready for joint operations against ISIS and “is fully prepared to move on any area witnessing a security breach and puts all its military and security capabilities under the command of the leadership.”
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. ISIS remnants are particularly active in parts of northern and western Iraq that are disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, including in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahaddin.
“Terrorists’ targeting of civilians in Diyala is clear evidence of their brutality and a blatant attempt to destabilize the national ranks and community cohesion in the villages and cities of the province,” said parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi.
ISIS has not immediately claimed responsibility for the Diyala attack, but the group said on its Telegram propaganda channels on Tuesday that its militants targeted Sunni fighters of PMF in Diyala’s Saadiya area the previous day, “killing a fighter and injuring two others.”
Iraqi President Barham Salih said the attack is a “despicable attempt to destabilize the country,” in a tweet following the incident. He added Iraq needs to close security gaps and “not underestimate the threat of ISIS.”
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani also said he condemned the “treacherous and bloody ISIS attack on our people in Diyala, which once again ensures the need for all of us to stand firmly together and support our security forces against this threat that continues to target us.”
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani condemned the attack and sent his condolences to the families of the victims. "ISIS remains a threat to regional peace and coexistence and requires a collective, regional response," he tweeted.
In the latest edition of its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba, ISIS claimed it conducted 11 attacks in Iraq last week, killing and injuring 26 people.
Updated at 10:35 am
