At least 22 Iraqi soldiers and fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces were killed in a double suicide car attack by the Islamic State group in east Fallujah, while at least 19 people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a market crowded with shoppers in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s attack was carried out with a confiscated Iraqi Army Humvee and an armored army vehicle at the Harariyat village, part of Al Karmah town, Al Jazeera reported.
Both blasts targeted a congregation of Iraqi Army soldiers and fighters. At least 24 were also wounded in the incident.
The violence is part of ongoing clashes between IS and government forces, who have been cutting the supply lines of the extremist group, isolating the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.
According to reports, Iraq’s security forces are taking towns and villages surrounding those cities and use them as staging posts to go into Ramadi and Fallujah. This is while Iraq’s air force carried out an airstrike in the center of Fallujah, hitting a mosque allegedly housing IS militants. At least 17 of the fighters were reportedly killed in the attack.
Afghanistan Market Blast
Also in Afghanistan, At least 19 people were killed 38 wounded amid other Taliban assaults.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the powerful blast in Faryab Province’s Almar district, but suspicion immediately fell on the Taliban. Overnight, there had been an Afghan military operation targeting the insurgents in the same district.
The attack happened on a weekly shopping day for the area, meaning the market teemed with shoppers and soldiers protecting it when the bomber detonated his explosive vest, police said.
The “target of the attacker was military forces present in the area but the majority of the victims were innocent civilians,” deputy provincial police chief Baryalia Basharyar said.
There were fears the final death toll could rise, as many among the wounded were in critical condition.
Taliban insurgents have stepped up their attacks on Afghan soldiers and police in recent months. US and NATO troops formally ended their combat mission at the end of last year, leaving Afghan forces in charge of security in the country.
