Twin suicide bombers kill at least 38 in Baghdad
Backtoback blasts rip through busy market
BAGHDAD: Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a busy street market in central Baghdad on Monday, in back-to-back explosions that killed at least 38 people, Iraqi health and police officials said — the deadliest attack since last month’s declaration of victory over the Islamic State group.
BAGHDAD: Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a busy street market in central Baghdad on Monday, in back-to-back explosions that killed at least 38 people, Iraqi health and police officials said — the deadliest attack since last month’s declaration of victory over the Islamic State group.
The bombings came just two days after a suicide bomber struck a police checkpoint in northern Baghdad, killing eight people there.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for either attack but they bore all the hallmarks of IS, which has claimed many such attacks in the past.
Monday’s bombers struck during rush hour in the city’s Tayran Square, which is usually crowded by labourers seeking work. The twin explosions also wounded at least 105 people, the officials said.
The twin explosions shocked residents in the Iraqi capital because large attacks had decreased significantly in Baghdad and other parts of country since security forces retook nearly all territory once held by IS militants.
Munthir Falah, a vendor who sells secondhand clothes at the street market, survived Monday’s attack with shrapnel injuries to his chest and right leg.
“It was a tremendous, I felt the ground shaking under my feet,” he described the explosions to The Associated Press. “I fell on the ground and lost conscious to find myself later in the hospital.”
Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri denounced the attack as a “cowardly act against innocent people” and called on the government to take all necessary security measures.
Iraqi and US officials have warned that IS would continue with insurgent-style attacks even after the Iraqi military and US-led coalition succeeded in uprooting the Islamic State group across the country.
The cost of victory has been nearly incalculable as the three years of war against IS devastated much of northern and western Iraq.