ISIL CLAIMING CREDIT FOR BAGHDAD SUICIDE BLAST
Dozens killed by bomb in busy shopping area Shift in strategy seen since Fallujah is taken Prime minister’s car pelted in visit to site
At least 115 people were killed Sunday in a suicide bombing in central Baghdad claimed by the Islamic State, the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital this year, officials said.
Among those killed were at least 15 children, 10 women and six police officers when a bomber’s pickup truck laden with explosives went off outside a crowded shopping center, wounding 187 other people, said police and Iraqi officials, according to the Associated Press.
The bombing was the first major Islamic State terror attack in Baghdad since U.S.-backed Iraqi forces recaptured Fallujah, a city about 35 miles west of the capital, in a major defeat a week ago for the terror organization.
The Iraqi government had hoped that driving the militants out of Fallujah would help prevent the Islamic State from getting bombs into the capital, since it straddles major roads into Bagh- dad. The U.S. air campaign had also begun expanding airstrikes to target car bomb factories used by militants in an effort to stop high-profile terrorist attacks, which pose a risk to the stability of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
But the bombing reflects a shift in strategy for the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. As it has been pushed out of territory it controls in Iraq and Syria it has re- sorted to more conventional terror attacks against civilian targets.
“They’re kind of regressing back to being a terrorist organization,” Lt. Gen. Charles Brown, who commands U.S. air forces in the Middle East, said in a recent interview with USA TODAY.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi and lawmakers visited the
bombing site in the Karada district hours later. Video footage on social media showed an angry crowd, with people calling al-Abadi a “thief ” and shouting at his convoy, the AP reported. Eyewitnesses said the crowd pelted the al-Abadi’s car with rocks, shoes and jerry cans.
Before the government launched the Fallujah operation in late May, the prime minister had faced some protests over security concerns. In one month, Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions, was stormed twice by anti-government protesters.
A second bombing Sunday in Baghdad’s northern Shaab area killed five people and wounded 16, police said. No group claimed responsibility for that attack, which involved an improvised explosive device.
Sunday’s major bombing occurred shortly after midnight, when people were on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan. Most of the victims were inside a multi-story shopping and amusement mall, where dozens burned to death or suffocated, the AP reported.
Zahraa Al-Nasiri, who lives a few streets from the bombing, said the blast was so strong it “pulled open the doors in our home.”
“After the explosion, there was a huge fire at the clothing and perfume stores,” she said. “Families inside the neighboring apartments were trapped inside because of the fire.” The blaze was finally extinguished around 7 a.m. local time.
Al-Mujtaba Al-Waeli, 28, a classical musician whose office is in the Karada district, knows many who were killed in the attack.
“One of my colleagues at work lost her husband, son and two brothers. Three brothers I know were killed, too. I do not know how (their families) can bear it,” he said.
The White House condemned Sunday’s bombings. “These attacks only strengthen our resolve to support Iraqi security forces as they continue to take back territory from ISIL,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.