Suicide attack in Iraq’s Baghdad kills, wounds scores of civilians

Several people were killed and injured on Thursday when a suicide bomber exploded his vest at a busy market in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Several people were killed and injured on Thursday when a suicide bomber exploded his vest at a busy market in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the Iraqi military said.

According to a statement by Baghdad’s Operations Command, the attacker detonated his explosive vest in the Jameela marketplace located in the Iraqi capital’s northeastern Sadr City district.

The Operation’s Command statement noted that there were “a number of martyrs and wounded.”

Preliminary reports suggested at least eight people had been killed and 15 others wounded. Kurdistan 24 was unable to verify the reports independently.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Although Iraq declared a military defeat against the Islamic State in December 2017, the terrorist group continues to carry out insurgency-style attacks in formerly liberated areas like Mosul, which it once declared its de-facto capital, and even places it never controlled like the nation’s capital of Baghdad.

Senior Kurdistan Region officials have also urged authorities to investigate the root causes of the terror group’s emergence to ensure it does not re-emerge.

On late Wednesday, assailants believed to be affiliated with the so-called Islamic State killed five members of a family when they attacked their house near Iraq’s embattled city of Mosul, security sources said.

Read More: Five family members killed in alleged ISIS attack near Iraq’s Mosul

The gunmen killed the village community supervisor, his two sons, his nephew, his mother, and wounded two others, a security source who asked to remain anonymous told Kurdistan 24.

A statement from the Iraqi interior ministry blamed “terrorist elements” for the incident.