A suicide bomber attacked a crowded outdoor market in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing dozens in the latest in a wave of sectarian attacks claimed by the Islamic State in the Iraqi capital.
Two explosions at the market, in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, killed at least 38 people, and many more were wounded, officials said. An improvised explosive device detonated before the suicide bomber blew himself up.
Hassan Mustafa, 28, who owns a shop in Shaab, ran to the market after the suicide bombing. “It was a horrible scene,” he said. “I saw people lying dead on the ground, wounded people, body parts and clothes and sandals of children and women scattered all over the place. There were burned shops and burned cars.”
So many were wounded, he said, that the ambulances quickly filled up, and many victims were taken in cars to nearby hospitals.
Mohammad Sami, 32, was just outside the market on his way in to do his shopping when the blasts occurred. He survived with minor wounds to his hands and neck.
“Many explosions happen in crowded markets, and I ask, ‘Why can’t such markets be protected?’ ” he said. “How long do we have to keep suffering from this misery, this bad security situation?”
Saad Maan, spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, which is charged with protecting the capital, said that the attack had been carried out by a female suicide bomber, a rarity for the Islamic State. Hours later, however, in a message claiming responsibility for the attack, the militant group said the bomber was an Iraqi man, according to a translation of the statement published by the SITE Intelligence Group.
The attack followed last week’s bombing at a market in Sadr City, a vast and teeming neighborhood in Baghdad populated mostly by poor Shiites, that killed nearly 70 people and was the deadliest assault in the capital in months. That bombing was also claimed by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and two other bombings that day killed dozens more.
The attack in Shaab was just the deadliest of three in Baghdad on Tuesday. One of those, a suicide car bomb, struck a market in Sadr City, killing at least 17 people, officials said. Another, at a wholesale vegetable market in the southern neighborhood of Dora, killed at least three.
The burst of violence across Baghdad has come as American and Iraqi officials have emphasized that a military campaign, aided by American airstrikes, has been successful in clearing the Islamic State from territory it controlled in the west and north of the country.
But the Islamic State still controls Mosul, the country’s second-largest city. And even as the group has lost territory, it has returned in force to its traditional role as an underground guerrilla movement sowing terror in urban areas.
“These terrorist operations that are happening in Baghdad are a reaction to the big losses inflicted on ISIS in the recent battles to liberate the western areas,” said Abdul Karim Khalif, an Iraqi security expert who is a retired police commander and former Interior Ministry official.
Repeatedly over the last year, success on the battlefield against the Islamic State has meant more terrorist bombings in Baghdad, which have strained the ability of Iraq’s security forces to protect the city. As a result, some worry that army units may have to be pulled from the front lines to secure the capital, affecting the ability of the security forces to carry out offensives against the group elsewhere.
