Iraq Reels As Dozens Killed In IS Suicide Blast On Eve Of Eid

Iraq was in mourning Tuesday for dozens of people killed when a bomb ripped through a crowded Baghdad market on the eve of a Muslim feast in what the Islamic State group claimed as a suicide attack

Baghdad, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jul, 2021 ) :Iraq was in mourning Tuesday for dozens of people killed when a bomb ripped through a crowded Baghdad market on the eve of a Muslim feast in what the Islamic State group claimed as a suicide attack.

The bloody carnage Monday evening, one of the deadliest attacks in years in the war-scarred country, reportedly cost at least 36 lives, mostly of women and children, hours before the start of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice.

It sparked revulsion and renewed fears about the reach of the IS, which lost its last territory in Iraq after a gruelling campaign that ended in late 2017, but retains sleeper cells in remote desert and mountain areas.

The Sunni Muslim jihadists claimed on the Telegram messenger service that an IS suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt in the Woheilat market of northeast Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City that was busy with Eid shoppers.

In the panic and chaos of the attack, screams of terror and anguish filled the air. When the smoke cleared, human remains lay strewn amid scattered sandals, market produce and the charred debris of stalls.

President Barham Salih condemned the "heinous crime of unprecedented cruelty on the eve of Eid", writing on Twitter that the perpetrators "do not allow people to rejoice, even for a moment".

No official death toll has yet been released by Iraqi authorities, but medical sources told AFP at least 36 people were killed and about 60 wounded.