Almost 60 people have died in Baghdad after three predominately Shiite neighborhoods were attacked with bombs on Tuesday.
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It was the latest in six consecutive days of attacks in and around the Iraqi capital. The militant group is Sunni and regularly targets Shiite communities in terrorist attacks.
The attack is the deadliest of three assaults in the city today, in which a total of at least 50 people have died and 65 have been injured.
In that attack, a roadside bomb first exploded outside the concrete blast walls surrounding an open-air market, followed by a suicide bomber who blew himself up as people gathered to help the victims of the first explosion, a police officer said.
As the Islamic State militants are pushed back along front lines, the group is increasingly turning to insurgency-style attacks to detract from their losses, Iraqi and coalition officials say. The bomber had targeted members of Shiite paramilitary forces, the statement claimed.
A news agency could not independently authenticate the claim, but it was similar to previous such claims issued by the extremist group. “The council is calling for mainly Shiite government paramilitaries to take charge of Baghdad’s security”.
Then a suicide truck bomb hit the Sadr City district, killing 22 and wounding 36, Alison reports.
IS-claimed attacks have killed more than 140 people since last week in Iraq.
A suicide bombing on Tuesday in a marketplace in the northern, mainly Shia district of al-Shaab killed 38 people and wounded over 70, while a auto bomb in the nearby Sadr City neighbourhood left at least 19 more dead and 17 wounded. In northeast Baghdad, a suicide bomber targeted a restaurant in the Habibiya neighborhood, killing nine and wounding 18.
No one had yet claimed the Nahiyet al-Rashid or Sadr City attacks, but the incidents come amid an uptick in violent attacks by the ISIS terror group in the country.
On the westernmost outskirts of Iraq’s vast Anbar province, Iraqi forces entered the town of Rutba, about 240 miles (380 kilometers) west of Baghdad Tuesday.
The blast also wounded up to 45 people, he said, and a medical official confirmed the casualty figures.
Commercial and public places in Shiite-dominated areas are among the most frequent targets for the Sunni militants seeking to undermine the Iraqi government efforts to maintain security inside the capital.
“The spike in deadly bomb attacks across Baghdad, in predominantly Shia areas, will outrage anyone who places value on human life”, James Lynch, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said.
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Iraqi forces have regained significant ground from the group, and the frequency of attacks in Baghdad has increased in recent weeks. In 2014, the IS declared an Islamic caliphate on the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria and at the height of its power was estimated to hold almost a third of both Iraq and Syria. Iraq’s government says the group’s hold has since shrunk to 14 percent of Iraq’s territory.
