The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for a massive bomb that killed over 120 in Baghdad, their third attack in three countries in a week.
The bomb exploded after midnight in Karrada, a neighborhood filled with shops and restaurants filled with people making plans before the end of Ramadan. The dead included 25 children and 10 women.
Officials have said many people are still missing.
From the Associated Press:
“It was like an earthquake,” said Karim Sami, a 35-year-old street vendor. “I wrapped up my goods and was heading home when I saw a fireball with a thunderous bombing,” the father of three said.”I was so scared to go back and started to make phone calls to my friends, but none answered.” He said that one of his friends was killed, another was wounded and one was still missing.
The police said the majority burned to death or suffocated “inside a multi-story shopping and amusement mall.”
ISIS, a Sunni group, claimed they targeted a Shiite gathering, but both Sunnis and Shiites gathered in the neighborhood on Sunday.
Another blast in Baghdad’s al-Shaab killed four people and injured sixteen. No one has taken responsibility for the attack, but officials believe ISIS pulled it off.
The group also attached the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the attackers targeted foreigners:
“Bengali people, come out,” one gunman shouted. When the cook, Sumir Barai, and eight other men opened the bathroom door, trembling, they saw two young men, clean shaven and dressed in jeans and T-shirts.“You don’t need to be so tense,” one of the men told them. “We will not kill Bengalis. We will only kill foreigners.” At that, Mr. Barai’s gaze flicked to the floor of the restaurant, where he could see six or seven bodies, apparently shot and then sliced with machetes. All appeared to be foreigners.
The Turkish government blamed ISIS for the attack on the Atatürk Airport that killed 45 people and injured almost 200 people.
ISIS attacked only a week after Iraqi forces liberated Fallujah, which the terrorist group held for over two years. ISIS has also faced defeats in other places in Syria and Iraq, which have forced the terrorist group “to revert to more guerrilla-style tactics such as suicide attacks on civilians in urban areas.”
The terrorist group still controls Mosul, the country’s second-largest city.
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