Suicide attack kills 18 in Iraq oasis town

KARBALA, IRAQ // At least five attackers armed with suicide vests, rifles and grenades killed 18 people in the Iraqi oasis town of Ain Al Tamer, many of them guests at a wedding party, local officials said on Monday.

“They were carrying Kalashnikovs, hand grenades. One of them blew himself up and the others were killed by the security forces,” said the head of central Euphrates operations command, Qais Khalaf.

Lt Gen Qais Al Mohammedawi said five suicide bombers took part in the attack. One detonated his bomb while the other four were killed by security forces.

He said they were members of ISIL, which has stepped up attacks on security forces and the country’s Shiite majority in recent months as it has suffered a string of battlefield setbacks.

A local council member and a provincial health directorate source confirmed the death toll in the attack, which took place late Sunday, and said at least 26 others were wounded.

Ain Al Tamer, south-west of Baghdad, is located 50 kilometres from the Shiite holy city of Karbala and on the edge of Anbar province, long a haven for extremists.

It was not immediately what their target was. Five members of the same family were among the dead, according to a health official from Karbala province.

“The five terrorists were carrying lots of weapons and one of them blew himself up in the midst of our citizens,” said Farhan Jassem Mohammed of the local council.

“Some of them were wearing civilian clothes, others military clothes. They infiltrated from the west under the cover of darkness,” he said.

“One of them may have managed to flee. There is an ongoing search,” Mr Mohammed said.

A former mayor of Ain Al Tamer said the attackers started spraying bullets at a nearby wedding party.

“The attack kicked off as people were attending a wedding party in the neighbourhood. Several among the dead and wounded were at the party,” said Mahfouz Al Tamimi, who is now a Karbala provincial council member.

Military commanders said the attackers came from the Anbar desert to the west, a region that is overwhelmingly Sunni and borders Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.

Iraq’s security forces have for months been battling ISIL fighters in Anbar, notching up key victories in provincial Ramadi and the extremist bastion Fallujah earlier this year.

ISIL recently lost control of an area in Anbar called Jazirat Al Khaldiyeh, a key crossroads that extremists used to move fighters and supplies between fronts since they seized large parts of Iraq in 2014.

The attack on Ain Al Tamer, in which guerrilla fighters doubled up as suicide bombers, bore the hallmark of ISIL.

The extremists call such operations “inghamasi” – which literally means “plunging” and refers to the act of penetrating deep into enemy territory.

* Agence France-Presse, additional reporting from Associated Press

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This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

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6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (PA) Group 1 US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
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Adapt your business model. Make changes that are future-proof to the new normal
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The Bio

Ram Buxani earned a salary of 125 rupees per month in 1959

Indian currency was then legal tender in the Trucial States.

He received the wages plus food, accommodation, a haircut and cinema ticket twice a month and actuals for shaving and laundry expenses

Buxani followed in his father’s footsteps when he applied for a job overseas

His father Jivat Ram worked in general merchandize store in Gibraltar and the Canary Islands in the early 1930s

Buxani grew the UAE business over several sectors from retail to financial services but is attached to the original textile business

He talks in detail about natural fibres, the texture of cloth, mirrorwork and embroidery

Buxani lives by a simple philosophy – do good to all

Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history

Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)

Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.

Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)

A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.

Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)

Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.

Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)

Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.