The Daesh (Islamic State) “ISIS” claimed responsibility for the “suicide bombing” that killed dozens of people in a market in Sadr City, east of Baghdad, on Monday evening.
In a statement circulated on pages and websites loyal to it, the organization said that a suicide bomber named “Abu Hamza” blew himself up in a Shiite gathering in Sadr City. “The attack left more than 30 people dead and 35 injured,” he added.
About 30 people were killed and about 50 others, including women and children, were injured in the explosion that took place in a crowded popular market in the Shiite-dominated Sadr City neighborhood in Baghdad on the eve of Eid al-Adha.
Security and medical sources said that the explosion that took place in the Al-Wahailat market was caused by an explosive device, leaving 30 people dead and 47 wounded, according to an inconclusive toll.
The official Security Media Cell described the bombing that shook the stronghold of supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has great influence on the political scene in Iraq, as a “terrorist” attack and said that it was carried out “by a homemade explosive device.”
And Yahya Rasoul, spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, announced in a statement that the latter had ordered the arrest of the commander of the security force responsible for securing the “Al-Waheilat” market (he did not name him).
Al-Kadhimi also ordered, according to “Rasoul”, to “open an investigation by the Baghdad Operations Command (of the army) into the incident.”
Several Arab and Islamic countries condemned the attack, and affirmed their support for Iraq in the fight against terrorism.
In late 2017, Baghdad announced its victory over ISIS, by restoring the lands it had controlled since the summer of 2015, which is about three the size of Iraq.
However, the terrorist organization still maintains sleeper cells in many areas of the country, and launches from time to time bloody attacks.
