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| Isis bombing leaves scores dead at market in Baghdad | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| At least 76 people were killed and 200 wounded in a blast on Thursday at a market in Baghdad’s Sadr City district claimed by Islamic State. | |
| The bombing was one of the largest attacks on the capital since Haider al-Abadi became prime minister a year ago. | The bombing was one of the largest attacks on the capital since Haider al-Abadi became prime minister a year ago. |
| In a statement posted online, Isis said it had targeted the army and militia fighters in the Shia neighbourhood. The group, | |
| which seized swaths of northern and western Iraq last year, regularly sends bombers into the capital. | |
| “A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside Jamila market at around 6am,” police officer Muhsin al-Saedi said. “Many people were killed and body parts were thrown on top of nearby buildings.“ | “A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside Jamila market at around 6am,” police officer Muhsin al-Saedi said. “Many people were killed and body parts were thrown on top of nearby buildings.“ |
| The market in the north-eastern suburb is one of the biggest in Baghdad selling wholesale food items. A witness told Reuters they saw fruit and vegetables mixed with shrapnel littering the blood-soaked blast crater. | The market in the north-eastern suburb is one of the biggest in Baghdad selling wholesale food items. A witness told Reuters they saw fruit and vegetables mixed with shrapnel littering the blood-soaked blast crater. |
| Smoke rose from charcoaled bits of debris. Rescuers pulling bodies from the rubble waded through sheet metal that had formed the walls and roofs of vendors’ stands. | Smoke rose from charcoaled bits of debris. Rescuers pulling bodies from the rubble waded through sheet metal that had formed the walls and roofs of vendors’ stands. |
| Angry people gathered at the site of the explosion, some crying and shouting the names of their missing relatives and others cursing the government. | Angry people gathered at the site of the explosion, some crying and shouting the names of their missing relatives and others cursing the government. |
| “We hold the government responsible, fully responsible,” said one witness, Ahmed Ali Ahmed, calling on the authorities to dispatch the army and Shia militias to man checkpoints in the capital. | “We hold the government responsible, fully responsible,” said one witness, Ahmed Ali Ahmed, calling on the authorities to dispatch the army and Shia militias to man checkpoints in the capital. |
| Abadi took office last summer following the army’s collapse in Isis’s takeover of the northern city of Mosul that left the Baghdad government dependent on the militias – many funded and assisted by neighbouring Iran – to defend the capital and recapture lost ground. | |
| Security forces and militia groups are targetingIsis in Anbar province, the sprawling Sunni heartland in western Iraq, while Abadi has fixed his attention in recent days on a sweeping reform agenda aimed at the largest overhaul of the political system since the end of US military occupation. | Security forces and militia groups are targetingIsis in Anbar province, the sprawling Sunni heartland in western Iraq, while Abadi has fixed his attention in recent days on a sweeping reform agenda aimed at the largest overhaul of the political system since the end of US military occupation. |