A massive truck bomb ripped through a popular Baghdad food market in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in the early morning hours on Thursday, killing dozens of people, police officials said. The attack also wounded 125 people.
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Hassan Hamid, a minibus driver, said “This is the strongest explosion I’ve ever seen in my life”, said the 37-year old father of three, speaking from his hospital bed where he was being treated for shrapnel injuries. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
The Islamic State is a Sunni militant Islam group and considers Shiites to be heretics.
The neighborhood in northeast Baghdad is a frequent target for bombings by the Sunni-led Islamic State, which is battling against Shiites militias.
The blast tore through the crowded Jameela market in the predominantly Shia district of Sadr City.
“A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside Jamila market at around 6am”, police officer, Muhsin al-Saedi, said.
The death toll was the highest in Baghdad since twin bombings targeted a Shiite funeral and a nearby area in September 2013, killing at least 72 people. Among the first orders given by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi after he was named Iraqi premier in September was for Iraqi security forces to stop shelling areas populated by civilians.
Protesters say much of the country’s domestic problems have been sidelined as a result of the war with the Islamic State group, and that senior government officials are turning a blind eye to problems that have plagued Iraq for decades.
Committee chairman and MP Hakim al-Zamili, once a leading member of Mahdi Army leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s now-disbanded political party, reiterated demands for a security review and for improving the country’s intelligence services. “We don’t want you anymore”, said one banner held aloft above the crowd, which included families and older people who said their sons were fighting with the militias.
In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby strongly condemned the attack, as well as a vehicle bomb attack in eastern Iraq’s Diyala province on Monday and other recent attacks. Jets taking off from Turkey have not yet joined the operation.
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Despite a yearlong US-led bombing campaign against the group – and the presence of almost 3,000 American troops advising and training Iraqi forces – Iraq has struggled to retake territory from the extremists.
