SULAIMANI (ESTA) — At least 35 people were killed on Monday in an explosion at a local market in Iraq’s Sadr city east of the capital Baghdad, security sources said on Monday.
Women and children were among the dead and some shops had burnt down as a result of the explosion, Reuters cited sources as saying.
More than 50 people were wounded, Reuters reported.
The state news agency said that the blast was the result of an explosive device. Iraq’s Security Media Cell said an investigation had been launched.
Shafaq News cited a security source as saying that 25 people were killed and 47 others were wounded in the blast, which experts believe it was carried out by a “suicide bomber”.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has ordered arrest of a commander in the federal police and the commander of ground forces who were in charge of security in the area.
President Barham Salih posted a tweet saying: “With an awful crime they target civilians in Sadr city on the eve of Eid … We will not rest before terrorism is cut off by its roots.
It was the third time an explosion has hit Sadr, the mainly Shia Muslim neighborhood of Baghdad, in recent months, with the last one in June wounding 11 people.
A suicide attack claimed by Islamic State (ISIS) militants killed at least 32 people in a Baghdad market in January.
*This story was updated at 12:10 p.m. EBL time
