The attack prompted al-Abadi to order new security measures in Baghdad and other cities, including pulling a hand-held electronic device widely sold as a bomb detector but which has been reputedly branded as bogus by experts. Reports reveal that more than 4,000 people have been killed or injured in bomb blasts since 2007 because of the porous checkpoints in Iraq.
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Several news outlets reported the attacks have increased Iraqis frustration with their government’s inability to prevent large-scale bombings or protect Baghdad.
Ghabban offered to resign on Tuesday, saying a deputy would take over his responsibilities, two days after one of the worst bombings in Baghdad since the 2003 invasion.
The death toll from a suicide bombing on a busy Baghdad shopping street rose to more than 200 Monday as victims succumbed to their injuries and rescuers pulled out bodies from the charred shops and malls, making it the Islamic State’s deadliest-ever bomb attack on civilians.
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden minibus in Baghdad’s Karrada neighbourhood early on Sunday, ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to talk to the media.
In an interview on state television in May, Iraq’s interior minister Mohammed Ghabban said that he had inherited the problem and that a “committee” should be formed to see whether the devices work.
He said the explosives-rigged lorry came from Diyala province north of Baghdad, meaning it likely successfully navigated multiple security checkpoints on the way into the Iraqi capital.
“The Christian community in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, gathered to visit this sorrowful site”, Adel Kanna said.
Investigators taking samples from the wreckage of the latest bombing suggested that napalm, or a variation of it, may have been used in the blast that ignited huge fires in three-level shopping complexes on either side of a road.
A video posted by al-Abadi on Facebook shows the tense-looking prime minister moving through the crowd surrounded by security personnel, amid screaming and racing ambulances.
“The suffering of the families will last for weeks until we are able to identify them”, she said.
A stretcher piled with ashes, some of which had spilled over the side onto the blood-streaked floor, sat near the door inside the morgue. “Every day that people have to think about this tragedy, it just makes them more upset”.
“If he had any dignity he’d resign now”, said Abbas Yassin, 45.
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“A drop of blood from me might help in a small way”.
