At least five people were killed and several others wounded when a suicide bomber struck a cafe in Baghdad, police said Thursday, in a pre-dawn attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
"A suicide bomber blew up his explosive belt while he was surrounded by police near a public garden in Al-Shoala district," a mainly Shiite northern neighbourhood of the capital, the statement by the security forces said.
IS claimed responsibility for the attack and said it killed 15 people, while naming the bomber as Abu Umar al-Ansari.
"He entered into the crowd of apostates and detonated his explosive belt, killing 15… and wounding over 19 others", it said in a statement.
A police source told AFP five people had been killed and 16 others wounded in the overnight bombing, which hit people who had gathered after breaking their daily Ramadan fast.
Those killed were a woman, a girl and three police officers, according to the source.
Municipal workers cleaned human remains, blood stains and glass from the pavement, while damaged police vehicles were also cleared from the scene.
Images circulating on social media showed the vehicles with their bodywork damaged and windows blown out.
One of the dead police officers was named as Lieutenant Rami Dhaher, an intelligence officer, who was hailed as a "hero" in the media.
The dead officer's name was also cited in the IS statement claiming the attack.
The attack came on the seventh day of Ramadan fasting, a period regularly hit by bloody extremist violence in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Cafes in Iraq are particularly busy at night during this Islamic holy month, with families and friends gathering to relax and eat before the fast re-starts at dawn.
Iraq in December claimed victory over the Islamic State group after a gruelling campaign to retake swathes of territory captured by the Sunni jihadists, but IS still carries out sporadic bombings.
Iraq court sentences Belgian jihadist to death for IS membership
Baghdad (AFP) May 22, 2018 –
An Iraqi court on Tuesday sentenced a Belgian jihadist, who threatened Europe in propaganda videos, to death by hanging for membership of the Islamic State group.
The tough punishment is the latest doled out in the conflict-scarred country to foreigners who flocked to the self-declared caliphate of IS.
Tarik Jadaoun — known by his nom de guerre Abu Hamza al-Beljiki — earlier pleaded not guilty to a range of terror charges, insisting he had "got lost" and pleading for mercy.
In Brussels, the foreign ministry called for the death penalty to be commuted.
"We would like the death sentence to be changed to life imprisonment," spokesman Didier Vanderhasselt told AFP, noting that Belgium was opposed to capital punishment.
Born in 1988, Jadaoun — who was captured in ex-IS bastion Mosul in August — appeared before the Baghdad court dressed in a beige prison uniform with a shaved head and bushy moustache.
The hearing lasted for less than 10 minutes, with a judge sentencing him to be "hanged until death".
Jadaoun — who refused to defend himself after the charges were read out — was immediately taken out of court with his face covered by guards and loaded into a prison van.
He now has 30 days to appeal the verdict during which time the sentence should not be carried out.
In addition, he was sentenced to three years in prison and handed a fine worth $2,300 (2,000 euros) for illegally crossing the Iraqi border.
In a statement released after the sentencing, the Iraqi judiciary described Jadaoun as "among the most wanted foreign terrorists who fought in Syria and Iraq".
Jadaoun, who has Moroccan roots, said during a first hearing on May 10 that he was forced by "one of the top IS commanders" to appear in videos threatening attacks against Belgium and France.
The footage saw Jadaoun earn the moniker "the new Abaaoud", after his compatriot Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the organisers of November 2015 attacks in Paris.
– 'Nurse' claims –
He claimed that he had not been a fighter for IS but was instead in charge of a group of nurses.
"I took care of everybody," he told the earlier hearing.
Investigators had previously alleged that Jadaoun was in charge of the "cubs of the caliphate" — about 60 children aged eight to 13 who received intensive fitness and weapons training. There was no mention of these allegations at his trial.
In total, Iraqi courts have sentenced to death more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to IS, judicial sources said last month.
Since January, some 100 foreign nationals have been sentenced to death in Baghdad and around 185 to life in prison, officials said.
Iraq has previously executed dual nationals accused of belonging to groups including Al-Qaeda, but is yet to put to death any Westerners sentenced over IS links.
Thousands of foreign fighters from across the world flocked to the black banner of the jihadists as the group seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Their "caliphate" has since been reduced to a rump territory of desert in the east of war-torn Syria.
The fate of those who survived ferocious onslaughts by various forces against IS has been a major headache for their home governments, which are often against seeing them return.
