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Death Toll Tops 120 from Blast in Baghdad Shopping District
| Wall Street Journal | - |
A
massive car bomb exploded overnight in the heart of one of Baghdad's
busiest commercial areas, killing at least 121 people and wounding many
others, security officials said.
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Death Toll Tops 120 from Blast in Baghdad Shopping District
Islamic State claims responsibility for the car bombing; prime minister heckled at blast site
ENLARGE
The explosion in the upscale central neighborhood of Karrada went off around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Photo:
Associated Press
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing, the extremist group’s first major attack on the Iraqi capital since losing the nearby city of Fallujah to Iraqi forces late last month. A series of defeats in Syria and Iraq since last fall has prompted the militants to revert to more guerrilla-style tactics such as suicide attacks on civilians in urban areas.
The blast in the upscale central neighborhood of Karrada occurred at around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday in front of a Shiite mosque, damaging it and setting nearby buildings ablaze, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said. The streets were packed with young people and families reveling breaking of the Ramadan fast, with many watching the European soccer tournament on a cafe TV at the blast site.
When Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi toured the site hours after the explosion, angry crowds jeered him, calling him a thief and throwing shoes and rocks at his convoy.
ENLARGE
Firefighters work on Sunday at the site of a car bomb in the Karrada shopping area of Baghdad.
Photo:
Reuters
Civil defense teams worked through the night in Karrada, pulling bodies from the debris as families of the missing gathered in the street, looking for their relatives and shouting and cursing at security forces they said had failed to keep the area safe.
Islamic State said in a statement distributed online that it had targeted a gathering of Shiites. The Sunni militant group and other Sunni extremists reject Shiism, calling it polytheism.
Minutes after the Karrada bombing an improvised explosive device detonated in the crowded east Baghdad neighborhood of al-Shaab, killing four people and wounding 16, the interior ministry said. The blast targeted young Iraqis who were out shopping at night for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan and begins this week. No group has claimed responsibility for the second attack.
Mr. Abadi has presided over months of political uncertainty, partly caused by frequent attacks on Baghdad and other cities that have exposed gaps in Iraq’s security infrastructure.
“Despite repeated promises made by security forces, the slaughtering of Iraqis continues on a daily basis by the terrorists,” former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said.
A protest movement that arose earlier this has questioned Mr. Abadi’s leadership and called for immediate government reform.
Mr. Maan said measures would be taken against the security personnel in charge of the area where the explosion took place.
“We are making efforts to arrest the criminals who [carried out] this crime. Such crimes will not stop us from defeating the terrorism of Daesh,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
The Iraqi army reclaimed full control of Fallujah from Islamic State on June 26. The city, in Anbar province some 40 miles west of Baghdad, served as a command center for the terror group, and was one of its last major strongholds in Iraq following its loss of Ramadi and the northern city of Sinjar.
Islamic State retains control of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which it has held since blitzing the country in 2014 and seizing about one-third of its territory. An offensive to reclaim the city has been discussed for two years but not launched.
The group’s ability to stage major attacks in what are supposed to be well-secured parts of Baghdad underlines its resilience and the government’s failure to uproot it.
“Daesh is trying to prove its existence by [carrying out] attacks in Karrada, specially after being defeated in Fallujah,” said Saad Al Mutalibi, deputy head of the Baghdad provincial council’s security committee.
In May, Islamic State claimed a series of bombings over three days that left more than 100 people dead across Baghdad, in some of the deadliest insurgent violence in recent years.
— Ali A. Nabhan in Baghdad contributed to this article.
