The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing that killed 32 people and wounded 110 at a crowded market in central Baghdad on Thursday.
It was the deadliest attack on the city in three years, when another suicide bomber targeted the same area.
The first attacker drew a crowd at the bustling market in the capital’s Tayaran Square by claiming to feel sick, then detonated his explosives belt, the interior ministry said.
Photo: AFP
As more people flocked to the scene to help the victims, a second suicide bomber set off his explosives.
The open-air market, where secondhand clothes are sold at stalls, had been teeming with people after the lifting of nearly a year of COVID-19 restrictions across the country.
A news photographer at the scene said that security forces cordoned off the area, where blood-soaked clothes were strewn across the muddy streets and paramedics were rushing to take away the casualties.
The Iraqi Ministry of Health said that those who lost their lives died at the scene, and that most of the wounded were treated and released from hospital.
After midnight, IS posted a claim of responsibility for the attack on its online propaganda channels.
Such violence was commonplace in Baghdad during the sectarian bloodletting that followed the US-led invasion of 2003 and later on, as IS swept across much of Iraq and also targeted the capital.
However, with the group’s territorial defeat in late 2017, suicide bombings in the city became rare.
Baghdad’s concrete blast walls were dismantled and checkpoints across the city were removed.
Iraqi President Barham Salih led political figures in condemning Thursday’s attack, saying that the government would “stand firmly against these rogue attempts to destabilize our country.”
Pope Francis, who hopes to visit Iraq in March, deplored the “senseless act of brutality.”
The US, the UN and the EU strongly condemned the attack.
US Acting Secretary of State Daniel Smith said that the bombings “were vicious acts of mass murder and a sobering reminder of the terrorism that continues to threaten the lives of innocent Iraqis.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged “the people of Iraq to reject any attempts to spread fear and violence aimed at undermining peace, stability and unity.”
The UN mission in Iraq offered condolences to the numerous victims, saying: “Such a despicable act will not weaken Iraq’s march toward stability and prosperity.”
Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that his government was ready to assist Iraq “in the struggle against terrorism and extremism.”
The attack was meant “to disrupt the peace and stability of Iraq and to provide a pretext for foreigners to maintain their presence there,” he said.
A rogue overgrown sheep found roaming through regional Australia has been shorn of his 35kg fleece — a weight even greater than that of the famous New Zealand sheep Shrek, who was captured in 2005 after six years on the loose. The merino ram, dubbed Baarack by rescuers, was discovered wandering alone with an extraordinarily overgrown wool coat, and was promptly shorn to save his life. Kyle Behrend, from the Edgar’s Mission farm sanctuary, said that it appeared Baarack was “once an owned sheep” who had escaped. Merino sheep do not shed their fleece and need to be shorn at least annually, as
‘GRAVE CONCERN’: A critic of the government died immediately following his complaints of torture at the hands of security forces, a human rights group said Students on Friday clashed with police in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, as anger mounted at the death of a writer and government critic in a high-security jail. At least 18 police and an unknown number of protesters were injured in the clashes, authorities and witnesses said, amid international demands for an independent investigation into the death of Mushtaq Ahmed. An Agence France-Presse correspondent witnessed police using batons and firing tear gas at students who staged a torchlight march calling for “justice” near the University of Dhaka. At least six students who allegedly attacked security forces with torches were detained, police said. More protests were planned
China, under growing global pressure over its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, is mounting an unprecedented and aggressive campaign to push back, including explicit attacks on women who have made claims of abuse. As allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang mount, with a growing number of Western lawmakers accusing China of genocide, Beijing is focusing on discrediting the female Uighur witnesses behind reports of abuse. Chinese officials have named women, disclosed medical data and information on their fertility, and accused some of having affairs and one of having a sexually transmitted disease. Officials said that the information was evidence of bad character,
The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago’s airport in late January and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was beaming. “Today is a day of joy, emotion and hope,” he said. The source of that hope: China — a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged about 500 million doses of its vaccine to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press (AP). With just four of China’s many