ISIL militants have claimed responsibility for the deadliest single auto bombing since the 2003 US-led invasion.
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People light candles at the scene of a massive auto bomb attack in Karada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 4, 2016.
Bodies were still being recovered Tuesday afternoon, and police and health officials said at least a dozen people remain unaccounted for.
The suicide bomber struck shortly after midnight, when families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan.
It was the worst single auto bomb attack in Iraq since USA forces toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago and deepened the anger of many Iraqis over the weak performance of the security apparatus.
Health Minister Adila Hamoud told the Agence France-Presse that the bombing killed 250 people and wounded 200.
He said the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police, should have full responsibility for security inside Iraq’s cities.
Bruno Geddo, of the United Nations refugee agency, said it was “particularly cruel to target a camp holding vulnerable displaced families, who had already fled their homes to escape conflict and violence”.
She said 150 bodies “required DNA testing and matching with the families of the victims” because they had been burned by the fire that followed the blast.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced changes to security measures following the blast, including scrapping fake bomb detectors that were still in use years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.
The bombing showed the IS capability for launching attacks beyond the front lines, despite battlefield losses elsewhere in the country.
“I placed my resignation before the prime minister”, Mohammed al-Ghabban said Tuesday.
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ISIS militants, who government forces are trying to eject from large swathes of northern and western territory seized in 2014, claimed responsibility for the bombing.
