On Monday, a group of gunmen detonated a vehicle bomb in eastern Baghdad, and stormed a shopping mall in a predominantly Shiite district of the Iraqi capital.
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The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the assault via social media and claimed four of its militants were involved.
Brigadier Qasim al-Anbuki, the local head of police intelligence, was leading a force to check tips about a suspected auto bomb parked on a highway linking Baghdad to Baquba.
“People started running into the shops to hide, but (the militants) followed them in and opened fire without mercy”, said Hani Fikrat Abdel Hussein, a shop-owner standing amid shattered glass and rubble at the site of the blasts. The Islamic State claim also cited four attackers, including three who triggered suicide blasts. Three other officers were also wounded, they added. “The situation is under control”.
Iraqis gather after the mall attack in Baghdad, where 18 people died and at least 50 were injured. Several other sources gave a similar account.
The ministry source had said earlier that the attackers entered the shopping centre with a number of civilians as hostages.
It said the attack was carried out by “four soldiers of the caliphate” and targeted Shiites.
They said gunmen could be seen on the roof of the mall, which was surrounded by police and soldiers.
18 people were killed and 50 injured.
“I saw the body of small child strewn on the ground over there, human flesh”.
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Bombs killed at least 20 people at a cafe in Muqdadiya on Monday.
A crater is clearly visible at the entrance to the Jawhara Mall in New Baghdad, where a bomb was detonated on Monday.
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But the province remains a hotbed of violence by both the jihadists and powerful Shia militia forces that have played a major role in the fight against IS. “The perpetrators want to incite sectarian violence, in a desperate attempt to take the country back into the dark days of sectarian strife”, UN Iraq representative Jan Kubis said.
