“We remain united with the Iraqi people and government in our combined efforts to destroy ISIL,” the White House statement said, using an acronym for the self-declared ISIS.
A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up in Baghdad’s central district of Karrada, killing 115 people and injuring at least 200. In a second attack, a roadside device exploded around midnight in a market in al-Shaab, a Shiite district, killing at least two people, police and medical sources 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 ISIS just over a week ago.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb hit Karada, a busy shopping district in the center of Baghdad, killing 86 people and wounding 170, according to police and hospital officials. It struck as families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted online, saying they had deliberately targeted Shiite Muslims. The statement could not be independently verified.
At dawn Sunday, fire fighters were still working to extinguish the blazes and bodies were still being recovered from charred buildings. Many of the dead were children, according to Associated Press reporters at the scene.
Ambulances could be heard rushing to the site for hours after the blast. An eyewitness said the explosion caused fires at nearby clothing and cellphone shops.
Hours after the bombing, Iraq's prime minister visited the blast site. Video footage uploaded to social media showed an angry crowd, with people calling Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi a "thief" and shouting at his convoy...
(alarabiya.net with Reuters, AP)
3/7/16
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