SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Death toll of an explosion that hit Sadr City in Baghdad rose to 30, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday.
In a statement, Iraqi security media cell said a report from experts showed that a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt carried out the explosion in a crowded market in the Sadr City on Monday, the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
The security media cell added that 30 people were killed and more than 50 others were injured in the explosion.
“The intelligence services have begun collecting accurate information to follow up on the criminal terrorist elements that carried out this terrorist act to bring them to justice,” it stated.
Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Nasheer news agency said on Telegram. It said one of its militants blew up his explosive vest among the crowds.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held an urgent meeting with top security commanders to discuss the attack.
He placed the commander of the federal police regiment responsible for the area of the market place under arrest, the Iraqi military said.
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.
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.
