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Baghdad car bomb kills dozens in third such attack in three days Huge Baghdad car bomb kills at least 48 in deadliest attack of 2017
(35 minutes later)
A huge car bomb blast has ripped through a used car market in southern Baghdad, killing at least 39 people in the third such attack in three days, police said. A huge car bomb blast has ripped through a used-car market in southern Baghdad, killing at least 48 people, security and medical sources said, in the deadliest such attack in Iraq this year.
Mobile phone footage circulated on social media showed charred bodies and extensive destruction in the Bayaa neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital, where the explosion went off about 4.15pm (1315 GMT) on Thursday. Islamic State, which is on the defensive after losing control of eastern Mosul to a US-backed Iraqi military offensive, claimed responsibility for the bombing in an online statement. It was the third such attack to hit the Iraqi capital in three days.
A police colonel gave initial casualty figures of 39 killed and 61 wounded but said the emergency services were struggling to cope with the scope of the attack and warned that the death toll may rise. As it cedes territory captured in a 2014 offensive across northern and western Iraq, Isis has stepped up strikes on government areas, particularly in Baghdad.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualty toll for the attack, for which there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Mobile phone footage circulated on social media showed charred bodies and extensive destruction in the Bayaa neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital, where the explosion went off about 4.15pm (13.15 GMT) on Thursday.
The explosion occurred in the same neighbourhood in southern Baghdad where a car bomb blast killed at least four people on Tuesday. Security and medical sources said at least 55 people had been wounded.
At least 11 people were also killed in a suicide car bomb attack claimed by Islamic State on Wednesday in a northern neighbourhood of Baghdad. A police colonel said the emergency services were struggling to cope with the scope of the attack and warned that the death toll may rise.
The city was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017 but relatively few explosions had been reported since then until this week. The explosion occurred in the same neighbourhood in southern Baghdad where a car-bomb blast killed at least four people on Tuesday.
At least 11 people were also killed in a suicide car bomb attack claimed by Isis on Wednesday in a northern neighbourhood of Baghdad.
The city was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017, but relatively few explosions had been reported since then until this week.
US-backed Iraqi forces have dislodged Isis from most of the cities it captured in 2014 and 2015. The militants also control parts of Syria.
Iraqi government forces last month captured eastern Mosul and are preparing an offensive on the western side that remains under the militants’ control. The city is divided in two halves by the Tigris river.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.