Twin bombings hit Baghdad market place

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Twin bombings hit a busy marketplace in Baghdad on Friday, while an offensive by the Islamic State jihadist group in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq was foiled.
A security official told dpa that 14 people were killed and 44 wounded in the blasts that targeted the market of al-Bab al-Sharqi district in central Baghdad, reports dpa.
First a bomb went off in the market selling second-hand military outfits. A second blast followed shortly after, caused by a bomber driving an explosives-laden car, the official added on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
Independent Iraqi broadcaster Alsumaria News, citing an unnamed security official, reported that 44 people died and 70 were injured in the attack.
Meanwhile, three mortar shells fell on a garage in the mostly Shiite district of Khadmiya in northern Baghdad, leaving 14 injured.
No one claimed responsibility for the two attacks. Previous such assaults were claimed by extremist Sunni groups targeting mainly security forces and Shiites.
In northern Iraq, a top Kurdish commander was killed in clashes between Peshmerga troops and Islamic State militants near Kirkuk, Kurdish sources said.
Brigadier General Shink Fatih, the chief of the First Peshmerga Brigade, and five Kurdish soldiers were killed while repulsing a surprise attack by Islamic State jihadists south of Kirkuk, the fiercest onslaught by extremists in northern Iraq in recent months, a source told dpa.
"The situation is under control. Daesh targets are being shelled by Peshmerga and bombarded by [US-led] coalition warplanes," the source said, using an Arabic acronym for the radical group.
There were no figures on militant casualties.
The Peshmerga, who control Kirkuk, have in recent months recaptured several areas from the Islamic State group.
The al-Qaeda splinter militia has seized large areas of Iraq mainly in the western and northern Sunni heartland since late 2013.
In August, the United States launched an aerial campaign against Islamic State positions in Iraq.
The extremist Sunni group also controls considerable swathes in neighbouring Syria.
Earlier this week, Islamic State was pushed out of the Kurdish town of Kobane in northern Syria after four months of fighting.
But clashes sides are still underway on the outskirts of Kobane, according to activists.
Kobane officials on Friday called on the international community to help rebuild the town, located near the Turkish border.
"Each humanitarian organization is welcome," head of the self-proclaimed regional government of Kobane, Anwar Muslim, told journalists visiting the enclave.
"At least 50 per cent of the city was completely destroyed."
Large parts of Kobane have been razed to the ground because of the fighting against the Islamic State, according to the official.
Kurdish spokesman, Idriss Nassan, said it was impossible for about 15,000 inhabitants of Kobane to return home any time soon.
"There is no food, clothing or medication," Hassan said.
The Islamic State launched a massive attack to capture Kobane in September, forcing thousands of residents to flee across the border into Turkey.
Local Turkish insurgents were later backed by forces from the Pehmerga and US-led airstrikes in driving the jihadists out of the town.q

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