Baghdad double suicide attack kills many
-
Loading... - Cherry Fer
- 15 Jan 2021
- 1165 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
At least 35 people have been killed in a double suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, medical sources say, the second attack in three days.
More than 90 were injured in the attack in Tayaran Square, in the city centre.
Baghdad has repeatedly been the target of bombings and armed attacks since the Islamic State (IS) group overran large areas of the country in 2014.
However, the pace of attacks has slowed since Iraq's government declared it had retaken all the territory last month.
Monday's attack was carried out by two men wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, the interior ministry said.
The site of the attack is a busy square where large crowds of construction workers gather to find work every morning. It has been targeted by militants in the past.
Later on Monday, two civilians were killed and six others wounded by a bomb explosion in the north-eastern district of Jamila, medical and security sources said.
BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says that the suicide bombings in Tayaran Square were designed to maximise casualties, as is often the case, with one bomb swiftly followed by another.
Success by Iraqi forces in defeating IS as a territorial threat is likely to have caused the decrease in attacks recently, as jihadist bomb factories west of Baghdad can no longer operate, he adds.
But attacks are continuing, amid fears that the militants will revert to the guerrilla tactics they have used for so long.
A suicide bomb attack on a checkpoint in the north of the city on Saturday killed at least five people, police said.
Deadliest recent militant attacks in Iraq
July 2016: More than 300 civilians killed and hundreds injured in an IS suicide truck bomb attack in Baghdad's Shia district of Karrada - the deadliest attack by a single bomber in Iraq's history
November 2016: Up to 125 people, many of them Shia pilgrims from Iran and Afghanistan, killed in a suicide car bombing by IS at a petrol station in Hilla, south of Baghdad
July 2015: Truck bombing in marketplace at Khan Bani Saad, Diyala killed up to 120 - claimed by IS
11 May 2016: Multiple bombings in Baghdad targeted mainly Shia districts including Sadr City, killing 93 people. IS said it carried out two of the attacks
17 May 2016: Three bombings across Baghdad killed 77, including 41 in Shaab district and 30 in Sadr City
