15 killed, 50 injured in attacks across Baghdad

A series of attacks across Baghdad, including an explosion at a weapons warehouse that set off munitions and sent a huge plume of smoke over the Iraqi capital, killed 15 people and wounded over 50 on Friday, according to Iraqi officials.

The attacks underscore the poor security situation in the Iraqi capital, which has been subject to several recent large- scale attacks, including a July shopping center bombing that killed nearly 300 people. At least three rockets landed in eastern Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 15, police officials said. The rockets that hit eastern Baghdad appear to have been set of by a blast at a weapons storage facility, according to a police official. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said members of the powerful Shia militia group Asaib Ahl al-Haq were present at the scene of the attack.

Police officials say it is unclear which powerful Shia militia the weapons store belonged to. The weapons’ cache blast set off munitions stored there sending a huge plume of smoke over the city skyline.

In the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliya, a bomb struck a shopping street, killing two people and wounding eight, police said. Two bomb attacks on fruit and vegetable markets across the city killed five people and wounded 20, officials from the interior ministry said.

Meanwhile, a bomb attack on a commercial area in western Baghdad killed three people and wounded eight, according to police and hospital officials. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media.

Today also marked the martyrdom anniversary of the ninth Shia Imam. In Baghdad pilgrims descended on the Kadhimiya shrine in Baghdad to commemorate the day, but none of the attacks wounded pilgrims or hit near the shrine. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Islamic State group has often said it was behind deadly bombings targeting Shiite civilians in the Iraqi capital, including the July shopping center attack. Iraq’s army has pushed IS militants out of the major cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, and the government has pledged that it will retake Mosul from the IS group by the end of this year.