“When the security forces got too close, they killed three hostages”, a police official said. “The situation is under control”. A second explosion – from a suicide auto bomber, officials said – struck outside the cafe as victims were being evacuated and security forces and paramedics were arriving on the scene.
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“The scene was awful, and I will never forget it because of the child”, said Haitham Ali, who was near the attack and carried away a child killed by one of the bombers.
However some reports said Iraqi forces surrounded the mall and clashed with attackers inside.
The death cult, also known as Daesh, said they were behind the atrocity which left 50 people wounded.
Officials now believe all the attackers have been killed but previously estimated that about 50-75 people were trapped in the mall, according to the Associated Press news agency. Major roads, bridges and other shopping malls were closed to guard against further attacks.
Seven people, including two policemen, were killed in the auto bomb blast near the Jawaher mall in the predominately Shiite district of Baghdad Jadida, police and medical sources said.
The IS militants still control large areas of northern and western Iraq.
At least 10 people were killed and 22 were injured when insurgents attacked a shopping mall in Baghdad Monday with hand grenades and at least two nearby bombs, police told NBC News.
For Baghdad residents, the attack was a fearsome reminder of the days when their city faced near-daily mass casualty attacks from vehicle bombs and suicide attackers. Three other bombings also happened in or around the Iraqi capital on Monday evening, killing 25 to 30 others.
An anti-Qaeda “Awakening” group fighter scans an area outside a village on the southern outskirts of the Diyala provincial capital Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on January 28, 2008. Several local Sunnis were killed, and Sunni-owned shops and homes were destroyed.
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A top Iraqi army officer declared that Diyala province, where Muqdadiyah is located, had been “liberated” from Islamic State, but that has not brought an end to attacks by the jihadis.
