15 children among dead as bombs kill 91 in attacks on Iraqi capital
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AT least 91 people were killed yesterday in two bombings in Iraqi capital Baghdad, including a large-scale attack claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 86 people — among them 15 children — in a central shopping district, officials said.
The bombings demonstrated the extremists’ ability to mount significant attacks despite major battlefield losses, including the city of Fallujah, which was declared “fully liberated” from IS just over a week ago.
The deadliest attack took place in the central Karada district of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden pickup truck outside a crowded shopping center, killing at least 86 people and wounding up to 170 others, according to a police officer. He said the dead included 15 children, 10 women and six policemen.
The suicide bomber struck shortly after midnight, when families and young people were out 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, officials said.
“It was like an earthquake,” said Karim Sami, a 35-year-old street vendor. “I wrapped up my goods and was heading home when I saw a fireball with a thunderous bombing. I was so scared to go back and started to make phone calls to my friends, but none answered,” the father of three added. He said that one of his friends had been killed, another was wounded and one was still missing.
Within hours, IS claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted online, saying they had deliberately targeted Shiite Muslims. The statement was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremists.
At the scene, firefighters and civilians were seen carrying the dead away, their bodies wrapped in blankets and sheets. Smoke billowed from the shopping center, which was surrounded by the twisted and burned wreckage of cars and market stalls. A group of women were sitting on the pavement, crying.
In the second attack, an improvised device went off in the northern Shaab area, killing five people and wounding 16 others, another police officer said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of IS militants.
The attacks were the second deadliest in the capital this year. On May 11, IS militants carried out three car bombings in the city that killed 93 people.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and lawmakers visited one of the blast sites.
Video footage showed an angry crowd, with people calling al-Abadi a “thief” and shouting at his convoy. Eyewitness said the crowd pelted al-Abadi’s car with rocks, shoes and jerry cans.
Until the government launched its Fallujah operation, the prime minister had faced growing social unrest and anti-government protests sparked, in part, by popular anger at the lack of security in the capital. In one month, Baghdad’s highly-fortified Green Zone — which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions — was stormed twice by anti-government protesters.
In Karada, civilians expressed frustration at the government’s failure to secure the capital.
“We are in a state of war, and these places are targeted. The security can’t focus on the war (against IS) and forget Baghdad,” Sami, the street vendor, said.
The UN envoy for Iraq, Jan Kubis, described the attack as “a cowardly and heinous act of unparalleled proportions” and urged the Iraqi government to redouble its security efforts to protect Iraqis.
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