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Scores of people killed across Baghdad in three car bomb attacks Car bomb attacks in Baghdad kill at least 90
(about 2 hours later)
Three car bombs have killed scores of people across Baghdad in one of the Iraqi capital’s deadliest days in months. A string of car bomb attacks across Baghdad has killed at least 90 people, making it the Iraqi capital’s deadliest day this year.
The first explosion ripped through a commercial area in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Baghdad, killing at least 63 people and wounding dozens of others in an attack swiftly claimed by Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the largest blast, at a marketplace in the Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City, which killed at least 63 people.
A pickup truck packed with explosives detonated at rush hour near a beauty salon in a bustling outdoor market in the Sadr City district. Many of the victims were women, including several brides who appeared to be getting ready for their weddings, police and hospital sources told Reuters. Two other blasts targeted the Shia neighbourhoods of Kadhimiya, in the north of the city, the site of one of the main Shia Islamic shrines, and Hurriya.
The bodies of two men, said to be grooms, were found in an adjacent barber shop. Wigs, shoes and children’s toys were scattered on the ground outside. At least two cars were destroyed in the explosion, their parts scattered far from the blast site.
Isis said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, but Iraqi officials have denied the group’s claim.
Later in the day, two more bombs targeting civilians went off in separate Baghdad neighbourhoods. One blast hit the entrance to Kadhimiya, a mostly Shia district in the city’s north-west, killing 15 and wounding 33 others. The other went off on a commercial thoroughfare in a predominantly Sunni district of western Baghdad, killing seven and wounding 20. Sources told Reuters the tolls for both attacks were expected to rise.
Related: Mosul: suspicion and hostility cloud fight to recapture Iraqi city from IsisRelated: Mosul: suspicion and hostility cloud fight to recapture Iraqi city from Isis
Security has gradually improved in the Iraqi capital, which had been the target of daily bombings, but violence directed against the security forces and Shia civilians is still frequent. Despite the resurgence of Isis in areas outside the capital, the frequency of attacks in Baghdad has slowed over the past year. But Isis continues to demonstrate that it can still launch coordinated campaigns in sensitive areas of the city despite a massive security presence.
The first bombing also showed that Isis was still capable of launching significant attacks across the country despite a number of territorial defeats in the past year. It has recently stepped up assaults inside Baghdad, something officials say is an attempt to distract from the recent battlefield defeats. Iraqi officials have yet to come up with a way to stop car bombs from being driven around the city and detonated in areas that have frequently been targeted. Sadr City, a sprawling former slum area which is home to more than 1 million Shia residents, is one such area.
Ambulances rushed to the scene, where dozens of residents walked through the twisted wreckage of cars and other debris that littered the pavement. In recent years Sadr City has been targeted at least 110 times, according to Iraqi officials. In almost all cases the bombs were driven into the neighbourhood past an extensive system of checkpoints.
Rescuers stepped through puddles of blood to put out fires and remove victims. Smoke was still rising from several shops hours after the explosion as a bulldozer cleared the burnt-out chassis of the vehicle used in the blast. Iraqi police and soldiers continue to use British-made fake bomb detector wands at many checkpoints across the country. The company that made them, ATSC, was dissolved in 2013, and its founder, Jim McCormick, was convicted of three counts of fraud and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Karim Salih, 45, a grocer, said the pickup truck was parked by a man who quickly disappeared among the crowds of people. Iraqi interior ministry and military officials spent an estimated £52m on the devices. Officials still insist they work.
“The force of the explosion threw me metres away and I lost consciousness for a few minutes,” Salih said. He was not injured, but two of his workers were wounded. Isis has been pushed back from areas to the south and north of Baghdad, which are now dominated by Shia militias, who work alongside the Iraqi military and often have primacy over them. Isis is also on the back foot west of Baghdad, which had been a hotbed of Sunni militancy for more than a decade.
In its online statement, Isis said it had carried out a suicide attack that targeted a gathering of Shia militiamen. The terror group has repeatedly pledged to continue to target civilians across Iraq, especially members of the Shia sect. It has said it draws no distinction between them and security forces.
Isis controls significant territory in northern and western Iraq, including the country’s second-largest city, Mosul. Commercial and public places in Shia-dominated areas are among the most frequent targets for its militants seeking to undermine government efforts to maintain security inside the capital. Iraq’s government believes the group retains an organised presence in Baghdad, with a network of sleeper cells that recruit and train suicide bombers such as the militant who targeted Sadr City in the latest strike. Officials believe the suicide devices and car bombs are assembled inside the city.
In February, the group carried out devastating back-to-back market bombings in Sadr City, the stronghold of followers of an influential Shia cleric. That attack killed at least 73 people. The Guardian has spoken with captured Isis members who have previously been responsible for explosions in some of the areas targeted on Wednesday. One of the men, Abu Abdullah, who was formerly second in charge of the group inside Baghdad, said he had personally sent 15 suicide bombers on missions between 2011 and 2013, and had no regrets about his actions.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report