Militants take Iraq army camp

BAGHDAD — Militants with the Islamic State (IS) on Monday captured a military training camp in western Iraq, inching closer to full control of the restive Anbar province, as a spate of deadly bombings shook Baghdad, hitting mostly Shiite neighbourhoods and leaving at least 30 dead.

The attacks, which came as Iraqi Shiites marked a major holiday for their sect with families crowding the streets in celebration, raised new concerns that the Sunni militant group is making gains despite US-led coalition air strikes.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on a visit to Iraq warned that the air strikes will not be enough to defeat the militant group and stressed that the Iraqi security forces would have to do the "heavy work on the ground".

But Iraqi troops, overstretched and overwhelmed by the IS’ summer blitz that seized large swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq, continued to come under intense pressure on Monday in the western Anbar province, where militants seized an Iraqi military training camp.

The camp, near the town of Hit that fell to the insurgents earlier this month, was overrun in the morning hours after clashes with Iraqi soldiers, who were abandon the camp and withdraw from the area, two Anbar officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media. Town residents confirmed the camp's fall, speaking to the AP also on condition of anonymity, fearing for their own safety.

The IS touted its conquest of the camp in a statement Monday. The statement couldn't immediately be verified but it was posted on websites commonly used by the group.

In Baghdad, which has largely been spared of the violence seen in other parts of the country amid the IS' onslaught, bombings killed at least 30 people and wounded scores more on Monday, hitting three Shiite-majority neighbourhoods. The attacks came as many Iraqi Shiites families took to the streets to celebrate the Eid Al Ghadeer holiday, which commemorates the Shiite Imam Ali, the Prophet Mohammad's cousin and son-in-law and the sect's most sacred martyr.

In the eastern Habibiya district, police said 15 people died and 34 were wounded when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police checkpoint. Earlier, a car bomb struck near a bus stop in northern Baghdad, killing 11 and wounding 22. And in the sprawling district of Sadr City, a bomb hidden in a vegetable cart went off, killing four and wounding 18.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but the IS says it has a foothold inside Baghdad and has claimed several large-scale bombings in the city in the past months, particularly in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City.

In Anbar, the capture of the Iraqi military camp despite the US airstrikes' campaign. The US military, which withdrew its forces from Iraq in late 2011 after more than eight years of war, first launched the air strikes in early August to help Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces fight back and retake ground lost to the IS. The strikes in Iraq were followed in September by the first US-led air strikes in Syria, where the IS has captured much of the country's east, declaring a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control straddling the Iraqi-Syria border.

Since then, more than a dozen countries have entered the fight, providing air power, weapons or humanitarian assistance to more than a million Iraqi's people displaced by the militant offensive.

The British government joined the US-led aerial campaign on September 30. However, it has refused to join the air campaign in Syria, where the US has been joined by a coalition of Arab partners. The use of foreign ground troops in the battle against the Islamic State group has been frowned upon, both by the Iraqi government and by those foreign governments providing assistance.

"'The coalition can only deliver effective support to the Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces," said Britain's top diplomat during his visit to Baghdad on Monday. "The Iraqi people, the Iraqi security forces and Iraqi government will have to take the lead on the ground."

"We always understood that our campaign alone was not effective to be decisive in turning the tide against ISIL," Hammond added, using an alternate acronym for the militant group. "But it has halted the ISIL advance, it has forced ISIL to change its tactics and it is degrading their military capabilities and their economic strength, their ability to exploit oil revenues, for example."

The US military said Sunday it conducted an airstrike southwest of Hit in Anbar, destroying a militant armoured vehicle. It said another air strike southeast of Hit targeted an armored personnel carrier. Air strikes were also conducted near the Iraqi cities of Ramadi and Kirkuk, US Central Command said.