Commander for the elite force, said that Pompeo's remarks "indicate that he has been sleeping over the past 40 years and is unaware of what has happened during these years in the world and the region." 

Just as Hussein’s refusal to accept Yazid’s authority in the seventh century, issues of political power and religious legitimacy have become inextricably intertwined in the Saudi-Iranian rivalry today.

The area targeted is used by pilgrims and visitors from neighbouring Iran headed for the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala further north, although Dhiqar has previously been spared the worst of the violence.

The recapture of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and de-facto capital of the so called Caliphate located some 400 kms north of Baghdad, would mark the effective end of Daesh in the Arab country.