Casualties mount in Somalia, Iraq suicide attacks

BAGHDAD—The death toll from devastating back-to-back market bombings carried out by the Islamic State group the previous day in eastern Baghdad climbed to 73 on Monday, officials said.

Also, bomb attacks were carried out at a busy junction and a nearby restaurant in the town of Baidoa in Somalia, which killed at least 30 people, according to police.

Several of those critically wounded in the Baghdad blasts died overnight while 112 people remain in hospital, police officials said. At least five people were still missing after a blast ripped through the crowded Mredi market in the Shiite district of Sadr City. Another suicide bomb attack took place just as a crowd was gathering at the site to help the victims.

Three medical officials confirmed the latest death toll, which rose from 59 reported late Sunday.

The Islamic State group, which controls key areas in northern and western Iraq, promptly claimed responsibility for Sunday’s blasts.

In Somalia, a police officer said a suicide car bomb blew up at the junction while a second blast—possibly a bomb that had been planted or a suicide bomber—struck the restaurant.

“The restaurant and the junc- tion were very busy,” said Police Maj. Bilow Nurr from Baidoa, about 152 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Police Col. Abdi Osman said the death toll was 30, with 40 others injured. A hospital offi- cials said many of the bodies it received were charred beyond recognition.

Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

AP A SOMALI medic tends to a wounded boy at Madina hospital following a car bomb attack in Mogadishu. Recent bomb attacks in the Somali town of Baidoa claimed at least 30 lives, according to police.