Multiple ISIS bombings kill 94 in Baghdad

Civilians help as a municipality bulldozer cleans up the street after a car bomb explosion at a crowded outdoor market in the Iraqi capital Baghdad’s eastern district of Sadr City. (Photo: AP)

Three suicide bombings claimed by ISIS across Baghdad killed at least 94 people on Wednesday, the Iraqi police and hospital sources said, in the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital in 2016.

Security has gradually improved in Baghdad, which was the target of daily bombings a decade ago, but violence against security forces and Shia civilians is still frequent. Large blasts sometimes set off reprisal attacks against the minority Sunni community.

The fight against ISIS, which seized about a third of Iraq’s territory in 2014, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between Sunnis and the Shia majority.

The first attack, a suicide car bomb at a bustling market in the Shia area of Sadr City, killed 64 people during morning rush hour and wounded 68.

Two more blasts struck at the end of the working day. A suicide bomber stormed a security checkpoint leading into Kadhimiya, a north-western area housing one of the holiest sites for Shias, killing 17 and wounding more than 30.

Another bomb went off at a checkpoint on a commercial thoroughfare in a predominantly Sunni district of western Baghdad, killing 13 and wounding 20.

A pickup truck packed with explosives in Sadr City went off near a beauty salon in a bustling market. Many of the victims were women including several brides who appeared to be getting ready for their weddings, the sources said.

The bodies of two men said to be grooms were found in an adjacent barber shop.

Wigs, shoes and children’s toys were scattered on the ground outside. At least two cars were destroyed in the explosion, their parts scattered far from the blast site.

Meanwhile, Iraq said on Wednesday that its military campaign against ISIS had retaken around two-thirds of the territory seized by the militants in their lightning sweep across the country’s north and west in 2014.

“Daesh’s presence in Iraqi cities and provinces has declined. After occupying 40 per cent of Iraqi territory, now only 14 per cent remains,” a government spokesperson said, using an Arabic acronym for the ISIS jihadist group.