Blasts kill 120 in Baghdad, ISIS claims responsibility

Nearly 120 people were killed and 200 wounded in two overnight bombings in Baghdad, mostly in shopping areas as residents were busy celebrating Ramzan, the police said on Sunday.

The attack on the shopping area of Karrada is the deadliest since the US-backed Iraqi forces last month dislodged Islamic State from their stronghold of Falluja, an hour’s drive west of the capital. It is also the deadliest so far this year.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had ordered the offensive after a series of deadly bombings in Baghdad, saying Falluja served as a launchpad for such attacks on the capital. However, bombings have continued.

A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up in the central district of Karrada, killing 115 people and injuring at least 200. ISIS claimed responsibility for the “suicide attack” in an online statement.

Karrada is largely a Shia district with minimal Christian houses and few Sunni mosques. In the second attack, a roadside explosive device blew up on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday in a market in al-Shaab, a Shia district, killing at least two people, sources said.