BAGHDAD // A lorry bombing claimed by ISIL killed at least 54 people in a Shiite-majority area of Baghdad on Thursday.
Interior ministry spokesman Brig Gen Saad Maan said that 100 people were also wounded in what was the deadliest single attack in the city in months.
It came as prime minister Haider Al Abadi condemned comments made by the outgoing US army chief a day before, in which he warned that Iraq may ultimately have to be partitioned.
Thursday’s bomb went off in a wholesale vegetable market in the Sadr City area of north Baghdad at around 6am local time – peak time for shops buying produce. It devastated the market, ripping through buildings, killing horses used to transport vegetables and burning vehicles.
ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted online.
The extremist group frequently targets members of Iraq’s Shiite majority, whom it considers heretics, often striking in areas where crowds gather, such as markets and cafes, in a bid to cause maximum casualties.
The acting head of UN’s Iraq mission, Gyorgy Busztin, denounced the attack, calling it “an indiscriminate act of terrorism aimed at weakening the resolve of the Iraqi people”.
Such bombings are a significant source of tension in Iraq and have worsened the country’s sectarian divide.
Gen Raymond Odierno, who served as the top US commander in Iraq from 2008 to 2010, told a news conference on Wednesday that the country may ultimately have to be divided up.
Asked if reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites was possible, he said that “it’s becoming more difficult by the day” and pointed to a future in which “Iraq might not look like it did in the past”.
Questioned on partition, he said: “I think that is for the region and politicians to figure out, diplomats to figure out how to work this, but that is something that could happen.”
“It might be the only solution but I’m not ready to say that yet.”
Iraq has three main communities that would likely form the basis for any such partition: the Kurds, who already have an autonomous region, and the Sunni and Shiite Arabs.
Kurds dominate the country’s north and Shiites the south, while the Sunni Arab population is distributed across western, northern and central Iraq.
But for now, “we have to deal with [ISIL] first and decide what [the country] will look like afterwards,” Gen Odierno said.
On Thursday, Mr Al Abadi’s media office said that Gen Odierno’s comments were “irresponsible” and reflect “an ignorance of the Iraqi reality”.
The United States is a key partner in Iraq’s battle against ISIL, leading a coalition that is carrying out air strikes against the militants and training Baghdad’s forces.
But the issue of partition is an extremely sensitive one for Mr Al Abadi’s government, which is fighting to regain lost territory and keep the country united.
Thursday’s blast came two days after bombings in the province of Diyala province, north-east of the capital, which killed more than 30 people.
A massive suicide attack in the province killed more than 120 last month, one of the deadliest single bombings in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.
On Thursday, Germany said that ISIL had carried out a chemical weapons attack against Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, causing respiratory problems but no deaths.
The German defence ministry, which is providing arms and weapons training to the Kurdish forces, said that “American and Iraqi specialists from Baghdad are on their way to find out what happened”.
A senior official from the Kurdish peshmerga said that the attack had wounded several dozen fighters.
“Last Tuesday afternoon, peshmerga forces in the Makhmur area 50 kilometres west of the city of Erbil were attacked with Katyusha rockets filled with chlorine,” the official said.
ISIL has allegedly used chemical weapons on multiple occasions in Iraq and Syria, but such attacks have been limited and have had less impact than bombings carried out by the group.
Meanwhile, the governor of Iraq’s Anbar province said on Thursday that he was sacking all aides as part of Mr Al Abadi’s crackdown on corruption and incompetence to boost the government in its battle against ISIL.
The announcement came two days after parliament unanimously approved Mr Al Abadi’s sweeping reform plan – the biggest shake-up in Iraq’s governing system since the US military occupation.
His reform drive is especially important in Anbar, the Sunni heartland in western Iraq where Baghdad is focusing its offensive against ISIL, which has seized the provincial capital Ramadi.
Governor Sohaib Al Rawi said he was dismissing all of his aides and advisers as well as district managers who had been in their posts for more than four years or had performed poorly.
Echoing language used by Mr Al Abadi, Mr Al Rawi said that future appointments would be made “on the basis of experience and competence” and “according to need and specialisation”.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters
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Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
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MATCH INFO
World Cup qualifier
Thailand 2 (Dangda 26', Panya 51')
UAE 1 (Mabkhout 45 2')
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Living in...
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.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The years Ramadan fell in May
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
New Zealand 57-0 South Africa
Tries: Rieko Ioane, Nehe Milner-Skudder (2), Scott Barrett, Brodie Retallick, Ofa Tu'ungfasi, Lima Sopoaga, Codie Taylor. Conversions: Beauden Barrett (7). Penalty: Beauden Barrett
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Western Clubs Champions League:
- Friday, Sep 8 - Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Bahrain
- Friday, Sep 15 – Kandy v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
- Friday, Sep 22 – Kandy v Bahrain
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
