Market explosion kills one in Baghdad
BAGHDAD: An explosion rocked a market in east Baghdad on Thursday, killing one person and injuring 12 others, according to Iraq’s military.
The military said the blast in the capital’s Sadr City, in the Habibiya neighbourhood, was caused by a car laden with highly explosive materials that blew up while passing through a popular used furniture market.
It sent a cloud of black smoke above the area. Shortly aterward, a crowd of people gathered around the mangled wreckage of a charred car and a burned-out white van.
A fire engine was parked nearby. A photographer in Sadr City saw burned motorbikes and several charred cars.
Dozens of police and soldiers were deployed, blocking a major street through the district.
A military statement said one person was killed and 12 injured, according to a preliminary investigation. Five vehicles were burned, it added. It did not say what caused the detonation.
The driver of the car was killed in the explosion, the statement said.
Iraq’s president condemned the atack, calling it a “shameless” atempt by terrorist groups to destabilise the country during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
“We stand firmly against these atempts,” Barham Salih tweeted.
Iraqi authorities are usually quick to announce “terrorist” acts, oten blaming the Daesh militant group which has continued to carry out atacks despite its territorial defeat in late 2017.
But despite reports on social media of a car bomb, the authorities did not immediately confirm that Thursday’s blast was an atack.
Explosions in the Iraqi capital, particularly in Sadr City district, were once almost daily occurrences but have become less frequent in the past few years, particularly following the defeat of the Daesh in 2017.
In January, twin suicide bombings ripped through a busy market in the Iraqi capital, killing more than 30 people and wounding dozens.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s bombing.
The development comes hours ater a drone strike targeted Us-led coalition troops near Arbil airport and a Turkish military base in northern Iraq.
Wednesday night’s drone atack targeted coalition forces based near Arbil international airport and caused a fire that damaged a building, according to the Kurdish region’s Interior Ministry and coalition officials.