Thursday 13 August 2015

IS claims deadly bombing at marketplace in Iraq's Baghdad

The Islamic State (IS) militant group Thursday claimed responsibility for the massive truck bomb explosion at a busy marketplace in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad which killed 53 people, the group said in an online statement.

The militants transported a truck bomb in Sadr City district to carry out the operation at a wholesale marketplace in the Jamilah district, said the group whose authenticity could not be independently verified.

A police source said that 53 people died and over 100 others were injured as a refrigerator truck packed with explosives and carefully camouflaged with vegetables and fruits, detonated at the Jamilah wholesale vegetable market in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City district in eastern Baghdad.

Several people went missing by virtue of the massive explosion, which destroyed numerous shops and stalls and set alight a few civilian cars, the source said.
Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area to secure the scene, while ambulances and civilian vehicles evacuated the victims to several hospitals and medical centers.
IS frequently targets areas where crowds gather, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.

The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since June 2014, when bloody clashes broke out between security forces and IS militants.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) previously reported that an estimated 14,136 civilians died while 29,189 others were injured in the Iraqi armed conflict since January 1, 2014, up to the end of April 2015.

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