At least 91 people have been killed in two separate bomb attacks in Baghdad yesterday morning, Iraqi officials said.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb hit Karada — a busy shopping district in the center of Baghdad — killing at least 86 people and wounding up to 170, according to police and hospital officials.
It struck as families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan.
PHOTO: AFP
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted online, saying they had deliberately targeted Shiite Muslims.
The statement could not be independently verified.
At dawn yesterday, fire fighters were still working to extinguish the blazes and bodies were still being recovered from charred buildings.
Many of the dead were children, according to reporters at the scene. Ambulances could be heard rushing to the site for hours after the blast. An eyewitness said the explosion caused fires at nearby clothing and cellphone shops.
Hours after the bombing, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the blast site. Video footage uploaded to social media showed an angry crowd, with people calling al-Abadi a “thief” and shouting at his convoy.
In the second attack, an improvised explosive device went off in eastern Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 16. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The casualty figures were confirmed by police and hospital officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to release information to reporters.
The Baghdad attacks came a little more than a week after Iraqi forces declared the city of Fallujah “fully liberated” from the Islamic State. Over the past year, Iraqi forces have racked up territorial gains against the Islamic State, retaking the city of Ramadi and the towns of Hit and Rutba, all in Iraq’s vast Anbar Province.
Despite the government’s battlefield victories, the Islamic State has repeatedly shown it remains capable of launching attacks far from the front lines.
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