Masked gunmen storm luxury hotel in Tripoli and kill 8 persons

#corinthiahotel #tripoli #lybia #gunmen Masked gunmen struck the Corinthia luxury hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea, in Tripoli and killed 8 persons – five of them were foreigners and the other three were security guards. The hotel usually has Italian, British and Turkish guests but was largely empty when the attack happened.
It is understood that the Tripoli branch of Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility, the Site Intelligence monitoring group said.
The attack included a car bombing and, Mahmoud Hamza, commander of the Special Deterrent Force, has indicated that the situation was under control. He could not, however, confirm the whereabouts of the gunmen.
There were rumors about hostages being taken but that has not been confirmed. Two commercial landmark towers located behind the hotel were evacuated due to security concerns.
Incidentally, this hotel is where the militia-backed prime minister, Omar al-Hassi, usually resides – he was not in the hotel when the attack took place.
In the opinion of experts, the attack was designed for maximum impact because it comes at a time when the UN is beginning a new round of Libya peace talks in Geneva.
The Pentagon had warned in December about the presence of ISIS in Libya and that its influence was growing. Also, that there was evidence that it had set up training camps. In the last nearly six months of fighting, more than 1000 have died while some of the towns are in ruins and over 400,000 people have been displaced.

At least 38 killed in car bombings in Iraq

At least 38 persons are believed to have been killed in two car bombings in Iraq foxnews.com– in one of the attacks, a suicide attacker drove a Humvee into a checkpoint that was manned by Iraqi troops and pro-government Shiite militiamen.

The attacks, apparently engineered by Islamic State militants, took place on the outskirts of the Sunni town of Jurf al-Skhar. Here, the suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden Humvee into the checkpoint and killed at least 24 people and wounded another 25. Most of the dead were reported to be members of the Shiite militia.
While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, the location of Jurf al-Sakhar is 30 miles south of Baghdad and the bombing bore all the hallmarks of an attack by the Islamic State group.
This could be true because the Islamic State group militants, who had captured it in July last, lost control of the town when Iraqi soldiers and the Shiite militia retook it from the Sunni extremist group.
Incidentally, Jurf al-Sakhar is part of a predominantly Sunni ribbon of territory that runs just south of Baghdad and lies on a road usually taken by Shite pilgrims to the holy Shiite city of Karbala further south. Pilgrims would be following the route next week to commemorate the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein -- one of the most revered Shiite martyrs.

Moreover, on Monday night, a car bomb blast near a line of shops and restaurants in downtown Baghdad killed 14 people and wounded 23.

Triple car bombing kills at least 28 Peshmerga veterans

Triple car bombing by IS militants have killed 28 Peshmerga veterans and injured another 90 – the veterans were on their way to re-enlist in the fight against Islamic State militants news.sky.com.

As per reports, the attack took place in a government compound in Qara Qubah – the dead included both civilians and soldiers. The actual casualty numbers is still not known because many others are still trapped in the debris.
Islamic State fighters have apparently claimed responsibility for the attacks – in Twitter they have indicated that three of the bombers were non-Iraqis who had been sent from Germany, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The attack was timed to coincide with the beginning of training that the British Army planned to impart to Kurdish forces on how to use heavy machine guns against the IS.

The attack on the Peshmerga fighters came after a bloody day of violence in Baghdad in which over 45 people were killed in a series of bombings that rocked Iraq's capital city. Three bombs were detonated in busy shopping areas - the first of these killed eight people outside an ice cream shop. And then just meters down the road in the neighborhood of Shaoula, another car blast killed 18 people.
Moreover, in countryside north of the city, a bomber wearing a suicide vest left 11 others fatally wounded.