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Twin Suicide Attacks Kill Dozens in Baghdad | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Iraqis inspect the site of an attack at Baghdad’s main vegetable market on January 8, 2017 (AFP Photo/Sabah Arar)


Baghdad- Suicide bombs at two marketplaces in Baghdad, one of them claimed by terror group ISIS, killed at least 20 people on Sunday, police and medics said, the latest in a spate of militant attacks in the Iraqi capital that have left dozens dead.

Reuters reported that in the first blast, the attacker drove an explosives-rigged car into a large vegetable market in the district of Jamila, the main wholesale vegetable market in Baghdad’s Sadr City, and detonated it after security forces opened fire to try to stop the vehicle, police sources said.

“A soldier at the gate of Jamila market opened fire on a suicide car bomb after noticing a suspect vehicle but the terrorist blew up his car,” Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said.

Iraqi forces have pushed ISIS out of much of the territory the group once held, but a wave of recent bombings have highlighted the danger extremists pose to civilians even as they lose ground.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up a few hours later at a market in the mostly Baladiyat district.

The first blast killed 13, and the second blast killed seven people. More than 50 were wounded.

ISIS claimed carrying out the first attack in an online statement, saying the bomber had targeted “a gathering of Iraqis in Jamila.

A series of attacks in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities have killed more than 80 people in just over a week.

Several of the attacks have been claimed by extremist ISIS, which is coming under increasing pressure from a U.S.-backed offensive in Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi forces advanced within several hundred meters of the Tigris river that runs through Mosul on Saturday, as their operation against the militants gathers pace.