Baghdad blasts: 28 people killed, 70 wounded as twin suicide blasts rock Iraq's capital

At least 28 people were killed and more than 70 wounded in a rare twin suicide bombing on a crowded commercial street in the heart of Baghdad on January 20. According to a statement by Iraqi officials cited by sources of AP, one of the two suicide bombers had entered the bustling market and complained of illness, gathering people around him. He then detonated his explosives in a deadly act of violence. Closely following the first blast, the second suicide bomber detonated his explosives as chaos on the street ensued, Iraqi interior ministry officials said. The ministry issued a statement saying that no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion has been made yet. 

The blast took place at an open-air market in Tayaran Square of Baghdad. The bombing attack rocked the Bab al-Sharqi commercial area killing the civilians. The attack comes just days ahead of the planned early elections. The Iraqi military troops suspect the Islamic State group behind the deadly explosions. Blood smeared across the commercial second-hand clothing market as remains of human flesh scattered with the blast. Loud shrieks of cries and stampede sent the street in a diary, according to ground reports. The police deployed on the crime scene speculated the casualty to rise. Survivors, that spoke on condition of anonymity, informed the Associated Press that many of the injured rushed to nearby hospitals were wounded seriously. Iraqi Health Ministry mobilized the city’s hospitals to treat the bomb blast victims immediately. 

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[People and security forces gather at the site of a deadly bomb attack in a market selling used clothes, Iraq. Credit: AP]

Iraqi military suspects IS' 'terrorist act'

A spokesperson for the Iraqi military’s Joint Operations Command, Maj. Gen. Tahsin al-Khafaji, told AP: “This is a terrorist act perpetrated by a sleeper cell of the Islamic State.” He further informed that the first suicide bomber had enacted an illness in the middle of a busy street congregating civilians in large numbers nearby before detonating his explosive belt. The second detonated his bomb seconds later. Al-Khafaji said that the terror force IS “wanted to prove its existence" as the Iraqi military had nearly rooted out its existence in covert operations.

A deadly attack of similar intensity had taken place in 2018 when then Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi had declared victory over the Islamic State group. Militants in Baghdad have routinely targeted the American military forces deployed in the region with IEDs, rockets, and mortar attacks, particularly around the US Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, despite an informal truce signed between US-led coalition and Iran-backed armed militia. 

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(Image Credit: AP)