Twin Suicide Bombings Kill Nearly 30, Injure 73 In Baghdad; Deadliest Attack In City In 3 Yrs
A rare twin suicide bombing killed nearly 30 in central Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi state media said, the deadliest attack in the city in three years. At least 28 people were killed and another 73 wounded in the attack on a huge open-air market for second-hand clothes in the Iraqi capital's Tayaran Square.
AFP
Two explosions
The police officials said two explosions hit the commercial center in central Baghdad. Iraqi state television reported they were suicide bombings. Many of the wounded were in serious condition and there was property damage.
The market had been teeming with people following nearly a year of restrictions imposed across the country in a bid to halt the spread of Covid-19.
AFP
How perpetrators attacked the capital?
According to an interior ministry statement, the first suicide bomber rushed into the market, claiming to feel sick. Once a crowd of people had gathered around him, he detonated his explosives.
As people then flocked around the victims, a second attacker detonated his bomb, the ministry said. An AFP photographer at the scene said security forces had cordoned off the area, where blood-stained clothes were strewn about the muddy streets.
Deadliest attack since 2018
Paramedics were working to remove casualties, and Iraq's health ministry said it had mobilised medics across the capital. Thursday's attack was the bloodiest incident in Baghdad since January 2018, when a suicide bomber also in Tayaran Square killed more than 30 people.
Suicide bombings had been commonplace in Baghdad during the sectarian bloodletting that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.
However, the bombings are the first in years to target Baghdad’s bustling commercial area. They come amid heightened political tensions as Iraq looks to have early elections in October.
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