Iraq market suicide bombing kills nearly 30
Eight women and seven children were among the dead
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility early Tuesday for a suicide bombing that ripped through a busy market in the Iraqi capital ahead of Eid holiday celebrations, killing nearly 30 people, according to medical sources.
In a message posted to its Telegram channel, the militant group said a suicide bomber named Abu Hamza al-Iraqi detonated his explosive belt in the middle of a crowd in Sadr City, an eastern Baghdad suburb on Monday night, killing more than 30 and wounding 35 others.
“A terror attack using a locally made
IED (improvised explosive device) in Woheilat Market in Sadr City, in east Baghdad, left several victims dead and others injured,” Iraq’s interior ministry said in a statement.
Eight women and seven children were among the dead, according to a medical sources, who said the toll lay between 28 and 30 killed.
They are targeting our civilians in Sadr City on the eve of Eid.
In one of the worst attacks in Baghdad in recent years, body parts of victims lay scattered across the previously bustling market that had been crowded with shoppers buying food ahead of the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, according to an AFP photographer.
Some 50 people were also wounded in the blast, medics said.
Refrigerators full of water bottles were drenched with blood, and shoes were strewn on the ground alongside fruit, AFP journalists said.
Iraqi President Barham Salih called the bombing in the densely populated majority-Shiite suburb of Sadr City a “heinous crime” and offered his condolences.
“They are targeting our civilians in Sadr City on the eve of Eid,” Salih said in a message on Twitter. “They do not allow people to rejoice, even for a moment.”
Baghdad Operations Command, a joint military and interior ministry security body, said it had launched an investigation into the blast, and police and forensic teams late Monday were searching through the smoking wreckage for clues.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi convened an emergency meeting with his heads of military and security agencies.
Iraq declared IS defeated at the end of 2017 after a fierce three-year campaign.
Yet the group’s sleeper cells have continued to operate in desert and mountain areas, typically targeting security forces or state infrastructure with low casualty attacks.