A top US envoy says Iraqi troops will launch a major ground offensive against the Islamic State group in the coming weeks, as a suicide bomber killed 14 people in Baghdad.
IS spearheaded an offensive that swept through large areas north and west of Baghdad last June, and Iraqi forces are battling to regain ground with support from US-led air strikes.
Jordan says it has carried out dozens of strikes against the jihadists since Thursday, as it seeks to avenge an airman burned alive by the group.
John Allen, the US co-ordinator for the anti-IS coalition of Western and Arab countries, said on Sunday Iraqi troops would begin a major offensive "in the weeks ahead".
"When the Iraqi forces begin the ground campaign to take back Iraq, the coalition will provide major firepower associated with that," he told Jordan's official Petra news agency.
Iraqi forces have already carried out operations near Baghdad and in Diyala and Salaheddin provinces north of the capital.
IS-led militants were stopped short of Baghdad in June and have since been pushed back, but can still carry out deadly attacks.
On Monday, a suicide bomber attacked Baghdad's Shiite-majority Kadhimiyah district, killing at least 14 people and wounding at least 43, officials said.
The bomber struck near pavement vendors in crowded Aden Square in the second suicide bombing to hit the city in three days.
On Saturday, an attack inside a restaurant in the Baghdad Jadida area killed at least 23 people.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's attack, but suicide bombings are almost exclusively carried out by Sunni extremists in Iraq, including IS.
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