Iraq: Suicide bombing kills at least 22 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - At least 22 people are dead after a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in a bustling market area in Baghdad.

 

Police say the bomber attacked an outdoor fruit and vegetable market, day laborers and a police checkpoint in Baghdad's Sadr City.

 

Up to 35 other people were wounded. </s> An explosion Sunday evening in central Baghdad marked the third attack of the day in the Iraqi capital, where a total of eight people were killed and at least 25 wounded in the three blasts.

The latest attack left one person dead and five others hurt, according to security officials at the Baghdad Operations Center. Authorities did not provide additional details.

Earlier, ISIS claimed responsibility for the day's deadliest attack, a suicide bombing that killed at least six people, according to the ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency. CNN could not independently confirm the claim.

Eighteen people were wounded. The suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in the Iskan city area of western Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.

The bomber struck when a small group of Shia pilgrims was preparing in a tent for the holy month of Muharram, an Iraqi police source told CNN.

The terrorist group claimed it was targeting Shia militia members. Separately, at least one person was killed and two wounded when a bomb exploded on a bus in central Baghdad, the Baghdad Operations Center told CNN. </s> Iraqi officials say Baghdad bombing kills at least 23, wounds 45 others. </s> BAGHDAD: A car bombing on Monday evening in the Iraqi capital Baghdad killed at least 23 people and wounded 45, an interior ministry official told AFP.



The blast happened at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) in the west of the city, he added. </s> Explosions in and around Baghdad kill 12 -police, medical sources

BAGHDAD, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Five explosions in and around Baghdad killed at least 12 people on Saturday and wounded 27 others, police and medical sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Islamic State regularly targets civilian areas and security forces in the capital.

The ultra-hardline insurgents have lost ground in the past year to U.S.-backed government forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias, but such bombings show the group can still strike outside the territory its controls in northern and western Iraq.

The deadliest blast came in Arab al-Jabour, an area of date palm groves on Baghdad's southern outskirts, when an improvised explosive device went off near a civilian vehicle, killing four civilians.

A bomb in a local marketplace in Taji, a northern suburb that hosts a large military base, killed three people and wounded nine, the sources said. A suicide bomber in the central Allawi district of Baghdad detonated his explosives vest, killing two and wounding eight.

Two roadside bombs in the northern al-Husseiniya district and in Yousifiya, south of the city, killed three and wounded 10. </s> BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three blasts killed at least 17 people and wounded more than 50 in predominantly Shi’ite Muslim districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, police and medical sources said.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in a commercial street in the eastern Baghdad al-Jadida area of the Iraqi capital, killing nine people and wounding more than 30, they said.

Another suicide attack hit a commercial street of Bayaa in western Baghdad, killing six and wounding 22, the sources said.

A roadside bomb exploded near a gathering of cattle herders and merchants in al-Radhwaniya, also in western Baghdad, killing two people, they said.

Islamic State claimed the two suicide attacks, but did not mention the third assault.

The hardline Sunni Muslim group has intensified bomb attacks in government-held areas this year as it loses territory to U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces and Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias.

The group claimed a truck bombing in July that killed at least 324 people in the Karrada shopping area of Baghdad - the deadliest single attack in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The group continues to control vast areas in northern and western Iraq, including the city of Mosul, captured in 2014. </s> The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a series of deadly attacks in Iraq since mid-October including three since New Year's Eve.

The latest on Monday saw at least 32 people killed in a suicide car bombing that targeted a Shiite neighbourhood of the capital Baghdad.

At least 27 people were also killed by twin explosions in a busy market area in central Baghdad on New Year's Eve, while another seven died on Sunday in an attack south of the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.

They were the latest in a spate of attacks since the army launched an offensive in mid-October to recapture Mosul, the country's second city and last remaining IS stronghold in Iraq. One on November 25 saw 70 people, mostly Shiite pilgrims, killed south of Baghdad.

The wave of violence has shocked many, but the attacks are still far from the deadliest since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003:

- July 3, 2016: 323 people are killed when a suicide truck bomber attacks a shopping area in the Baghdad district of Karrada.

- October 25, 2009: 153 people are killed and more than 500 wounded when two car bombs explode in Baghdad.

- August 14, 2007: More than 400 people are slaughtered when four suicide truck bombs target members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect in two Kurdish villages in northern Iraq.

- July 7, 2007: At least 140 people are killed in a suicide truck bombing in Amerli village in northern Iraq.

- April 18, 2007: A wave of car bomb attacks on Shiite districts of Baghdad leaves 190 dead.

- March 27, 2007: An anti-Shiite attack in the northern town of Tal Afar kills 152.

- February 3, 2007: A suicide truck bomb attack in a Baghdad market kills at least 130.

- November 23, 2006: At least 202 die in a string of car bombings in Baghdad's Sadr City.

- September 14, 2005: At least 128 people are killed in a series of suicide bombings in Shiite districts of Baghdad.

- March 2, 2004: Bomb attacks on Shiites in the holy city of Karbala and in Baghdad kill more than 170. </s> Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesperson says a double suicide bombing in central Baghdad has killed at least 16 people. The Health Ministry said 26 died.

Maj.-Gen. Saad Maan says the rush-hour attack struck at the city's Tayran Square on Monday morning.

He says it was carried out by two suicide bombers and that the explosions also wounded at least 65 people. The area around the square is usually crowded by labourers seeking work.

The Health Ministry, meanwhile, gave a far higher casualty toll. Spokesperson Saif al-Badr said 26 people were killed and that 90 were wounded but the Interior Ministry couldn't confirm those figures. Different casualty tolls are common in the immediate aftermath of such large attacks.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group, which has claimed such attacks before.

Militant attacks have decreased significantly in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq since the country's security forces retook nearly all territory once held by ISIS. Iraqi and U.S. officials have warned ISIS would continue with insurgent-style attacks. </s> Iraqi security officials say 6 explosions have gone off in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 3 people.
Three bombings kill at least 17 people in Baghdad.