Seven people, including a police officer, were killed in northern Mozambique in an attack claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State, local sources reported on Saturday.

One police officer and six civilians, including two children, were killed in the attack, which took place on Wednesday evening in the village of Lidjungo, Nangade district, AFP was told by a local official based in Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique, without giving details of how the attackers operated.

Since October 2017, Islamist militants have targeted isolated communities in Cabo Delgado province, a gas-rich and predominantly Muslim province, killing more than 250 people and forcing thousands more to leave their homes despite a strong police and military presence in this region bordering Tanzania.

According to SITE Intelligence, which monitors jihadist activities, the Islamic state group issued a statement on Friday evening, stating its involvement in the Wednesday attack. This is the second time he has claimed an attack in northern Mozambique.

“Caliphate soldiers attacked Mozambican army barracks in the Nangade region of northern Mozambique two days ago,” according to a SITE translation. The group claimed to have encountered the soldiers “killing and wounding a number of them and forcing others to flee”.

The EI had already claimed its involvement in an attack in northern Mozambique on 3 June in the village of Metubi, 150 km east of Nangade.

Police and authorities have a policy of not commenting on insurgent activities, even if the attacks are confirmed by the local population.

The identity of Islamist militants active in northern Mozambique remains uncertain and their motives unknown. Several analysts expressed doubts about the EI’s claims, suggesting that it is unlikely that the group will have direct contact with fighters in Mozambique. </s> Seven people including a policeman were killed in northern Mozambique this week in a jihadist attack claimed by the Islamic State group, local sources said Saturday.

The attack on Wednesday evening occurred in Lidjungo village in the Nangade district, a local source based in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province told AFP. One policeman and six civilians were killed in the attack, including two children.

Islamist fighters have targeted remote communities in the gas-rich, Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado province since October 2017, killing more than 250 people and forcing thousands from their homes despite a heavy police and military presence in the area that borders Tanzania.

According to SITE Intelligence, which monitors jihadist activity, Islamic State issued a statement late on Friday claiming involvement in the Wednesday attack.

This is its second IS claim for an attack in Mozambique, targeting the volatile northern region. The first was on June 3.

"The soldiers of the caliphate assaulted barracks of the crusader Mozambican army, in the Nangade area, in northern Mozambique, two days ago," said the statement, according to a SITE translation.

The group claimed to have clashed with the military "killing and wounding a number of them and forcing the remainder to flee".

It said fighters seized weapons and ammunition.

The group first claimed involvement in northern Mozambique last month, saying it carried out an attack that took place in Metubi village, about 150 kilometres east of Nangade.

The police and government have a policy of not commenting on any insurgent activity, even if attacks are confirmed by local residents.

The identity of the militant Islamists staging attacks in northern Mozambique remains unclear and the motives unknown.

Analysts have expressed doubts over claims by the Islamic State, suggesting that it is unlikely that the group would have direct contact with fighters in Mozambique.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) </s> Seven killed in Mozambique IS attack

MAPUTO: Seven people including a policeman were killed in northern Mozambique this week in a militant attack claimed by the Islamic State group, local sources said Saturday.

The attack on Wednesday evening occurred in Lidjungo village in the Nangade district, a local source based in Mozambique´s northern Cabo Delgado province told AFP. One policeman and six civilians were killed in the attack, including two children.

Islamist fighters have targeted remote communities in the gas-rich, Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado province since October 2017, killing more than 250 people and forcing thousands from their homes despite a heavy police and military presence in the area that borders Tanzania. According to SITE Intelligence, which monitors militant activity, Islamic State issued a statement late on Friday claiming involvement in the Wednesday attack. This is its second IS claim for an attack in Mozambique, targeting the volatile northern region. </s> Dozens of people have been killed in a series of attacks in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, according to security sources.

The overnight attacks on Wednesday came after several suspected ISIL fighters infiltrated Tikrit, around 170km north of the capital, Baghdad.

The attackers, who reportedly wore police uniforms and used a police vehicle to enter the city, targeted a security checkpoint and the house of a police colonel, who was killed with four members of his family, according to officers.

Two suicide bombers detonated their vests when surrounded by police, and three others were killed in separate clashes.

READ MORE: UN expanding camps near Mosul as 300,000 people flee

A total of 31 bodies were taken to hospital, including 14 belonging to policemen, Nawfal Mustafa, a doctor at the city's main hospital, told the Reuters news agency.

The death toll rose in the morning as more bodies were found, belonging to civilians killed in their shops.

The violence, which also left at least 42 people wounded, prompted Tikrit authorities to declare a curfew in the city. Sporadic gunfire could still be heard on Wednesday morning.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but ISIL fighters have carried out similar attacks in Tikrit in the past, in an apparent diversionary tactic as Iraqi forces push ahead with a US-backed offensive to dislodge the group from the remaining districts under its control in Mosul, further north.

ISIL, or the Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant, seized Tikrit during a lightning offensive that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in the summer of 2014, but Iraqi forces recaptured it the following year. </s> As families and friends mourn the loss of those killed in an attack on a military hospital in Kabul, Afghan officials launched an investigation on those responsible for the assault.

Gunmen dressed in white lab coats stormed the Sardar Daud Khan hospital in the centre of the capital on Wednesday, firing shots, detonating explosives and then battling security forces for hours. The assault resulted in the death of more than 40 people.

The Afghan interior ministry and the defence ministry on Thursday announced a probe into a claim by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group that it was behind the attack.

“We are assessing Daesh claims to yesterday’s attack, but at this stage we can’t make a prejudgment prior to conclusion of investigation,” Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesperson of the Afghan ministry of interior said in a tweet, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL, also known as ISIS.

“Brutal terrorist groups like ISIS (ISIL), Taliban, Haqqani and many other regional terrorist networks with safe havens in Pakistan have been behind many horrific attacks in the past,” he added.

The Afghan Taliban, which attacked the Sardar Daud Khan hospital in 2013 killing six people, denied responsibility for Wednesday’s assault.

According to US military officials, ISIL has about 700 fighters in Afghanistan. The group has previously claimed responsibility for a number of attacks that resulted in a large number of casualties, including a twin suicide bombing at a protest march in Kabul last year that left at least 80 people dead.

As reports emerged of ISIL’s claim of responsibility, some analysts said the group does not have the capacity to conduct an attack of this magnitude.

“[ISIL] is still trying to gain a foothold in the east of the country,” Inayatullah Kakar, an Afghan security and political analyst, told a foreign news publication.

“ISIL does exist in Afghanistan, but for them to conduct an attack like this in an area that is heavily guarded and with this calibre that killed so many people, it doesn’t seem possible, as they are still trying to gain territories in eastern Afghanistan, while fighting the Taliban.”

The UN Security Council also denounced the attack in a statement released on Thursday and urged the international community to cooperate with the Afghan government to bring those responsible to justice and to suppress the financing of “terrorism”.

The death toll has risen to 49 with dozens wounded, a senior health official said on Thursday.

Salim Rassouli, director of Kabul hospitals, said 49 people had been killed in the attack on the Sardar Mohammad Khan military hospital on Wednesday, with at least 63 wounded.

Some uncertainty remained over the exact figure and one security official said more than 90 people had been wounded. Earlier estimates had put the number of dead at more than 30 with 50 wounded.

Gunmen went through the 400-bed hospital, shooting doctors, patients and visitors and battling security forces for several hours in a sophisticated operation claimed by Islamic State. </s> At least one person was killed and seven others wounded in an explosion outside a Shia mosque in the western Afghan city of Herat, an official told Al Jazeera.

Two suicide bombers attempted to enter the Nabi Akram mosque in Police District 7 on Sunday, but were pushed back by security guards, the official said.

"One was killed in firing and the other triggered his explosives causing casualties," he added.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to media, without providing evidence for the claim.

The area of the explosion has been cordoned off by police.

Shia Muslims are a persecuted minority in Afghanistan and have been threatened by the affiliate of the ISIL group that operates in the country's east.

The attack comes days after an ISIL bomber targeted a group of Shia marking the Persian new year in kabul, killing at least 30 people. </s> A suicide bomber detonated a pick-up truck packed with explosives in northern Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least nine people, according to Iraqi officials.

Thirty more were wounded in the powerful blast in the Habibiya area, near Sadr City, a Shia-majority neighbourhood in the Iraqi capital.

The explosion targeted a crowded street full of garages and used car dealers.

The attack came a day after a car bomb explosion in southern Baghdad killed at least four people.

The Iraqi capital was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017 but relatively few explosions had been reported since.

IN PICTURES: Fighting the flames of ISIL in Iraq

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's blast, but nearly all suicide attacks are claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group.

On January 2, ISIL, which often targets crowded areas to maximise casualties, claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed 39 people in a busy market in Sadr City.

ISIL is defending Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq, against a massive, four-month-old operation by an alliance of forces. </s> Taliban claims responsibility for deadly attack in Jowzaz province as officials blame ISIL.

Ten police officers and the wife of a commander have been killed in an ambush outside a mosque by Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan.

Mohammad Reza Ghafori, spokesman for the Jowzjan provincial governor, said on Saturday the police officers were attacked on Friday as they were coming out of the mosque.

The wife of the police commander heard about her husband being shot and rushed to the scene, where she was also killed in Sardar village of Darzab district, Ghafori said.

Officials blamed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for the deadly attack.

However, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for Taliban, said on Twitter his group killed the policemen and captured the village.

It wasn't possible to independently confirm either claim.

ISIL-linked fighters have been active in Afghanistan's eastern regions, but have recently begun operating in the north of the country as well.

In Jowzjan province earlier this month, ISIL was blamed for killing at least six Afghan employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross who were carrying supplies to areas hit by deadly snowstorms. Another two staff remain unaccounted for. </s> Officials say at least 20 have been killed and 34 wounded in blast at a market in Musayyib, south of Baghdad.

At least 20 people have been killed and 34 wounded after a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a market in the Iraqi town of Musayyib, south of the capital, Baghdad, according to police.

"A suicide bomber blew himself up in Musayyib market, causing 20 civilian martyrs," an interior ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency

A police officer and a medic at a local hospital said at least 34 people had been wounded in the blast.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group claimed the attack in a statement on its Amaq website.

Musayyib, about 60km south of Baghdad, has been hit by several attacks in recent years.

At least 22 people were killed and 50 wounded in 2014 when a mortar struck a busy area of the town.

Less than two weeks ago, two blasts in the space of 12 hours ripped through Baghdad, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 100 others. ISIL claimed responsibility for the first suicide car bomb attack, which took place in the district of Karrada.

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Last July, ISIL claimed an attack that killed nearly 300 people in the worst attack to hit the capital in 13 years of war.

Further north, Iraqi forces are currently fighting to retake the last ISIL-held areas of Mosul.

Iraqi commanders say the offensive, which recently entered its eighth month, will mark the end of ISIL in Iraq, but concede the group will likely increase attacks in the wake of military defeats.
ISIL claims responsibility for a Wednesday attack in Nangade District in Mozambique, which killed seven people.