In the deadliest single attack in the city this year, a refrigerator truck bomb set off in a Shia district of Baghdad has killed over 130 people. Islamic State has claimed responsibility, while survivors barracked the country’s prime minister for failing to ensure security.
Late on Saturday night, the suicide bomber drove the vehicle into a busy shopping intersection in the affluent Karrada district of the Iraqi capital. The holy month of Ramadan meant the street was busy with residents breaking their fast after nightfall, with many also gathered to watch the Euro 2016 football championship on public TV screens, and shop ahead of next week’s Eid festival.
Then the explosion rang out.
“It was like an earthquake. I wrapped up my goods and was heading home when I saw a fireball with a thunderous bombing,”eyewitness Karim Sami told AP. “I was so scared to go back and started to make phone calls to my friends, but none answered.”
A host of buildings – including a shopping center and a gym – were damaged, with charred cars smoking in the street.
At least 25 children were killed, and the death toll mounted throughout Sunday, as a fire took 12 hours to contain, and rescue services attempted to extract bodies from under the rubble.
Almost immediately, the Islamic State terror group boasted that it was behind the attack on its sectarian rivals, calling it a“security operation.”
In another Baghdad district, a roadside bomb exploded in a busy market, killing five and injuring 16, in a consistent pattern with Islamic State’s favored tactic of launching multiple near-simultaneous attacks to create a sense of terror. No one has yet claimed responsibility for that attack, however.
One person has been arrested in connection with the explosions.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a politician from Iraq’s Shia community, raced to Karrada, vowing revenge.
