15 May 2016•Update: 16 May 2016
By Haydar Hadi
BAGHDAD
At least 18 people were killed and another 32 injured on Sunday when a suicide car-bomb rocked Baghdad’s northern Taji district.
Police Lieutenant Miqdam Mohamad of the Taji Security Complex told Anadolu Agency that the bomb had gone off outside a state-run LNG factory, leaving 18 people dead -- including eight soldiers -- and another 32 injured, including police and laborers.
Six of the attackers, Mohamed said, had been stopped by security forces while attempting to enter the factory.
"Security forces managed to foil the attack," the army’s Baghdad Operations Command declared in a subsequent statement.
Much of the LNG plant, however, reportedly remained engulfed in flames in the wake of the bombing.
"The area has since been secured and civil defense crews are working to extinguish the fire," the army statement read.
On the same day, two other attacks in Baghdad -- in the Rashidiya and Youssefiya districts -- reportedly left a total of three people dead and another 16 injured.
Last week, more than 100 people were killed and scores injured in Iraq’s Baghdad and Saladin provinces by a series of bombings for which the Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility.
Iraq has been dogged by rampant insecurity since mid-2014, when Daesh overran the northern city of Mosul and declared a self-styled "caliphate" in parts of Iraq and Syria.
Anadolu Agency correspondent Ahmet Sait Akcay contributed to this report from Ankara
