Desk Report
At least 125 people were killed and 200 injured in two bombings that hit Baghdad around midnight Saturday, nearly all of them in a blast targeting a busy shopping area as they celebrated Ramadan, police and medical sources said Sunday.
A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up in Karrada in central Baghdad, killing 125 people and injuring at least 200. Karrada was packed with people at the time as Iraqis usually eat out late during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends next week. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, in a statement circulated online by supporters of the ultra-hard line Sunni group. It is said the blast was a suicide bombing. Many of those killed in the attack were children, Associated Press reported. The street was covered by families who gathered on Sunday morning for news of their loved one, who were still missing. Police said the toll could rise as more bodies could be lying under the rubble of devastated buildings. A roadside explosive device also blew up around midnight in a market in al-Shaab, a popular Shi’ite district in the north of the capital, leaving at least two killed, police and medical sources said. A video posted on social media showed people throwing pavement stones and screaming “thief” and “dog” at the SUV convoy of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Karrada as he tried to visit the scene of the carnage a few hours after the explosion, venting their anger at the inability of the security forces to protect the area. They also vented their anger online. The website of the interior ministry was broken into by hackers. The hackers left the picture of a killed child and a drawing of a fake bomb detector, something which is still used in Baghdad at checkpoints amidst the other useless devices, through which car bombs and suicide bombers pass.
Written by S.M. Fahim