About 300 killed, injured in truck bomb explosion in Shiite district of Iraqi capital Baghdad
Local Editor
A powerful truck bomb blast has reportedly killed dozens of people and injured about 200 in Baghdad, reports say. The blast hit the Shia-dominated Sadr-City district of the Iraqi capital.
There are conflicting reports of the number of casualties. The Associated Press cited Iraqi officials who said that at least 54 were dead and 86 wounded, while Agence France-Presse said that at least 33 people have been killed in the explosions. Reuters has given the highest numbers of casualties so far, at 60 dead and 200 injured.
“A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside the Jamila market at around 6 a.m. [0300 GMT],” police official Muhsin al-Saedi told Reuters. “Many people were killed and body parts were thrown on top of nearby buildings.”
A local witness told Reuters that he saw blood and bodily remains among the fruit and vegetables at the market.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the explosions. The so-called Islamic State militants, who have controlled almost one-third of Iraq since June 2014, have repeatedly performed similar attacks in Shia-dominated neighborhoods. The ISIS fake jihadists now control two Iraqi provincial capitals, as well as the city of Fallujah.
