Attacks claim 40 lives in Iraq upon French President arrival

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – As the French President set foot in Iraq, a serious of bombings hit the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing and injuring dozens of civilians.

On Monday, French President Francois Hollande arrived in Baghdad on his second visit to the country to meet the Iraqi officials and visit French troops who advise and train the Iraqi security forces.

Early Monday morning, a car bomb exploded in a busy square in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City district, killing 24 people and injured 67 others.

Reuters reported that at least four other blasts occurred across the Iraqi capital of Baghdad that killed nine more people.  

“Another blast later in the day killed four people in the eastern New Baghdad district, where a minibus packed with explosives blew up in a busy commercial street,” police and medics sources told Reuters.

Two more car bombs exploded near a hospital on Palestine Road east of Baghdad, killing 12 people and injuring 26 people, local Iraqi sources stated.

Islamic State (IS) in an online statement on its Amaq news agency claimed the responsibility of the attacks.

On Monday evening, a group of gunmen attacked a police station in Samarra in Salahadin province, northern Baghdad, killing at least five people, and injuring several people.

Security forces enforced a curfew on the city.

Elsewhere, IS extremists targeted Iraqi military positions near Baiji in Salahadin province, killing at least 16 from the local security forces and cutting a strategic road linking Mosul to Baghdad for a short period of time.

The Iraqi security forces later announced that the road had been retaken from IS extremists.

Editing by Ava Homa