Islamic State claimed one suicide bombing which killed 38 people and wounded over 70 in a marketplace in the northern, mainly Shi’ite Muslim district of al-Shaab.
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More than 68 people have died in Baghdad after four separate bombing attacks on Tuesday, most targeting predominately Shiite neighborhoods.
Islamic State supporters on social media circulated a statement saying a male suicide bomber had carried out the al-Shaab attack.
Attacks claimed by Islamic State in and around Baghdad last week killed more than 100 people, the highest death toll in the capital in so few days so far this year.
Islamic State has frequently targeted crowded markets and restaurants in mainly Shiite areas, as well as attacking Shiite religious ceremonies and security forces.
Anger over the attacks adds to pressure on Abadi, who reacted Tuesday by directing Iraqi forces to step up efforts to uncover cells behind the bombings, and ordered the arrest of a security official responsible for one area that was targeted.
The spate of suicide attacks by the Islamic State in Baghdad, leaving over 130 dead and scores wounded over the last several days, marks a distinct and worrying shift in tactics to further destabilize Iraq’s fractious government, USA military officials say.
The attack was then followed by a suicide bomber’s explosion after he detonated his explosive vest as people gathered to help victims from the first explosion, killing 15 more and wounding 37 others, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Iraqi officials say a suicide vehicle bombing has hit a crowded market in Baghdad’s predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City area, killing 14 people there.
Tuesday morning, shortly after the Shaab attack, a bomb in a parked auto detonated at a fruit-and-vegetable market in the Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Dora, in southern Baghdad, killing eight people and wounding 22 others, a police officer said.
The deadliest attack happened in the al-Shaab area in northern Baghdad.
The attacks come as Iraqi security forces continue to make slow progress against Islamic State-held territory north and west of Baghdad.
Iraq has been now witnessing a wave of violence since the Islamic State (IS) group took control of parts of Iraq’s northern and western regions in June 2014.
Some Middle East watchers see the shift from vests to auto bombs as a sign that the Iraqi security forces are failing to protect Iraqi citizens. As IS loses ground on the front lines, Iraqi and coalition officials say the group is increasingly turning to insurgency-style attacks to distract from their losses. He said that there are between 10,000 and 12,000 fighters in Iraq, with the majority of them concentrated around Mosul, and another 10,000 and 12,000 fighters in Syria.
Blanche said the militants’ tactics were reminiscent of those of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, an al-Qaida leader who laid the foundation for today’s Islamic State a decade ago during the US occupation of Iraq.
According to the authorities, IS now controls only 14 percent of Iraqi territory, down from the 40 percent it held in 2014.
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“We are seeing [the Islamic State] see opportunities and take advantage of those opportunities”, Gen. Votel said, according to The Associated Press.
