The death toll from devastating back-to-back market bombings carried out by the Islamic State group in eastern Baghdad on Sunday climbed to 73 yesterday, officials said.
Several of the critically wounded died overnight, while 112 people remain in hospital, two police officials said.
At least five people were still missing after the blast that ripped through the crowded Mredi market in the Shiite district of Sadr City, followed by a suicide bombing amid the crowd that had quickly gathered at the site to help the victims.
Photo: Reuters
Three medical officials confirmed the latest death toll, which rose from the toll of 59 reported late on Sunday.
All the officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called on security forces to “exert further efforts to prevent the terrorists from carrying out their crimes against innocent civilians.”
Al-Abadi, in a statement released late on Sunday, said the attacks “will not stop us ... but they will increase the determination” of the army, security forces and paramilitary troops to dislodge the militants from areas under their control.
UN Special Representative to Iraq Jan Kubis yesterday called the Sadr City bombings a “particularly vicious and cowardly terrorist attack” aimed against “peaceful civilians who were going about their daily business.”
“It is clearly aimed at inflaming sectarian strife,” he said.
The Islamic State (IS) group, which controls key areas in northern and western Iraq, has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s blasts.
The market bombings were the deadliest attack in a wave of explosions that targeted other commercial areas in and outside Baghdad on Sunday and brought the day’s overall death toll to 92.
Seven civilians were killed in attacks elsewhere, while security forces repelled an attack by IS militants that killed at least 12 troops.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)