SULAIMANI (ESTA) — At least 15 people were wounded in an explosion on Wednesday in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood, Iraqi police and medical workers said.
A military statement said an improvised explosive device (IED) hidden under a market stall in Sadr City, east of Baghdad.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. It was the second attack to hit Sadr City and the third to target a busy market this year in Baghdad.
In April four people were killed and 20 wounded in a car bomb attack in the same neighborhood. And in January a suicide attack killed at least 32 people in a crowded market.
Both attacks were claimed by Islamic State (ISIS) militants.
Large bomb attacks, once an almost daily occurrence in the Iraqi capital, have halted since ISIS fighters were defeated in 2017, part of an overall improvement in security that has brought normal life back to Baghdad.
Wednesday’s attack comes during an election year, a time when tension between rival Iraqi political groups has often caused violence.
The populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, after whom Sadr city is named and who commands a following of millions of Iraqis, counts among his enemies both ISIS and rival Shia parties with militias backed by Iran.
*This story was updated at 10:08 a.m. (EBL time) on Thursday.
