Sunday, April 19, 2015
On Friday a car bomb, claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), killed, by varying reports, at least three people and injured at least five others, possibly including a US national, outside of the United States Consulate in Irbil, Iraq. According to the US Department of State there were no injuries to consulate personnel.
According to police, following a small improvised explosion, a car approached the consulate, but exploded short of the consulate when fired on by security personnel. They said the explosives seem to have been triggered by the people inside the car, not the gunfire.
According to Reuters, until this incident there had been little ISIS aggression in Irbil since November. Ainkawa, the consulate’s neighborhood, is mainly Christian. Reportedly the primary blast took place at approximately 5:40 p.m. local time, when the neighborhood is busy.
On Saturday, an attack claimed by ISIS in Afghanistan killed reportedly at least thirty-three people outside of a major bank which had a long line of people outside of it waiting to collect their pay checks.