36 dead in Baghdad attack as French president visits Hollande says IS battle prevents attacks at home
BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber driving a pickup loaded with explosives struck a bustling market in Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 36 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
The bomb went off in a fruit and vegetable market that was packed with day labourers, a police officer said, adding that another 52 people were wounded.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the bomber pretended to be a man seeking to hire day labourers. Once the workers gathered around, he detonated the vehicle.
IS claimed the attack in a statement circulated on a militant website often used by the extremists. It was the third IS-claimed attack in as many days in and around Baghdad.
The attack took place in Sadr City, a vast Shia district in eastern Baghdad that has been repeatedly targeted by Sunni extremists since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Shia militiamen were seen evacuating bodies in their trucks before ambulances arrived. Dead bodies were scattered across the bloody pavement alongside fruit, vegetables and labourers’ shovels and axes. A bus filled with dead passengers was on fire. AP BAGHDAD: Western support for military action against Islamic State jihadists is key to preventing attacks at home, French President Francois Hollande said Monday in Iraq, where yet another bombing killed dozens.
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car on a square in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighbourhood, killing at least 32 people in the latest attack on the Iraqi capital claimed by IS.
France, one of the most active members of the US-led coalition fighting the Sunni extremist group, is particularly concerned over the return of a large contingent of French jihadists from Syria and Iraq.
“Taking action against terrorism here in Iraq is also preventing acts of terrorism on our own soil,” Hollande said at a base where French soldiers have been training elite Iraqi forces.
Hollande is the only major Western head of state to have visited Baghdad since the coalition was set up in 2014. AFP Indonesian business partner of Donald Trump eyeing presidency
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