Baghdad suicide bombing: dozens killed, scores injured in blast at packed Iraq market

A suicide bomber has killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 60 in a crowded market in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad on Monday, the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, security and hospital sources said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Nasheer news agency said on Telegram. It said one of its militants blew up his explosive vest among the crowds. Hospital sources said the death toll could rise as some of the wounded were in critical condition.

Members of the Iraqi special forces, Isof, search for Isis militants in irrigation canals south of Kirkuk

The prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, held an urgent meeting with top security commanders to discuss the attack, the premier’s office said in a brief statement.

President Barham Salih posted a tweet saying: “With an awful crime they target civilians in Sadr city on the eve of Eid … We will not rest before terrorism is cut off by its roots.”

In April, the Sunni Muslim militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on a market in Sadr City, Baghdad’s main Shia Muslim neighbourhood, that killed four people and wounded 20.

Islamic State also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in January that killed more than 30 in the crowded Tayaran Square market in central Baghdad – Iraq’s first big suicide bombing for three years.

Large bomb attacks were once an almost daily occurrence in the Iraqi capital but have dwindled since an Islamic State invasion of northern and western Iraq was defeated in 2017.