SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Co-president Bafel Talabani on Monday condemned an explosion in a market in Baghdad that killed at least 35 people, expressing readiness to offer coordination and cooperation to fight Islamic State (ISIS) remnants.
Security sources said the blast carried out by a suicide bomber hit a crowded market in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad on Monday, the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
More than 60 people were also wounded, Reuters cited a police source as saying.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the victims of the terrorist act in Sadr City in Baghdad, and we wish a speedy recovery to the wounded,” Talabani said in a statement.
“We condemn in the strongest terms this inhuman act that claimed lives of a number of civilians,” he added.
The PUK co-president said the attack was evidence of the continuation of “terrorist threats” and that unity and coordination of all sides are needed to overcome the issues.
“Cooperation and coordination between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces are necessary now more than ever to overcome the security issues and to preserve security and stability in the country,” Talabani stated.
Talabani expressed PUK’s readiness for “support and cooperation to confront ISIS remnants and reach constructive national dialogue for the sake of political and social stability”.
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.
In April, the Sunni Muslim militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on a market in Sadr City, Baghdad’s main Shi’ite Muslim neighborhood, that killed four people and wounded 20.
Islamic State also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack last January that killed more than 30 in the crowded Tayaran Square market in central Baghdad – Iraq’s first big suicide bombing for three years.
