Suicide Bombing Leaves 200 Dead & Hundreds Wounded in Iraq

 

Over a hundred people have been killed by a suicide bomber in the busy Karrada district of Baghdad, Iraq, over the weekend, Daily Mail reports.

Sources say the suicide bomber had driven a bomb-laden truck through the district, as people congregated, shopped and watched soccer matches.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came just days after similar attacks occurred at a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, and security targets in Yemen.

According to Daily Mail, security and medical officials have confirmed that the number of deaths has risen to at least 213. They added that more than 200 were wounded, after the truck plowed into a building housing a coffee shop, stores and a gym. Firefighters thereafter rescued wounded and trapped people in adjacent buildings.

Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, announced a series of changes to security measures following the bombing, including scrapping the fake detectors at checkpoints years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.

Abadi also ordered the deployment of scanning devices to Baghdad, directed that security personnel be banned from using mobile phones at checkpoints, and called for increased aerial coordination among security forces.

Soldiers and policemen were, however, seen carrying the fake detectors at some checkpoints in central Baghdad on Monday, claiming that the order to stop using them had not yet been passed down.

A week ago, the Iraqi forces completely recaptured Fallujah, a city 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad after anti-government fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014 and later became one of IS’s main strongholds in the country.

The UN Iraq envoy Jan Kubis called the Baghdad attack  a “cowardly and heinous act of unparalleled proportions.”

Photo credit: Sabah Arah (AFP)