- Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-VIOLENCE Truck bomb kills at least 60 in Baghdad's Sadr City
- Date: 13th August 2015
- Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 13, 2015) (REUTERS) LARGE CROWD NEAR DAMAGED SHOPS AT MARKET MORE OF CROWD AT DAMAGED SHOPS OF WHOLESALE VEGETABLE MARKET DAMAGED SHOPS OF MARKET MAN WALKING AMONG DEBRIS HEAP OF MANGLED, TWISTED METAL OF SHOPS DESTROYED IN BLAST VEGETABLES SCATTERED ON GROUND COVERED WITH BLOOD CROWD OF PEOPLE WALKING NEAR SMOULDERING WRECKAGE OF SHOPS MORE OF PEOPLE AT WRECKED SHOPS OF MARKET CROWD OF PEOPLE WITH SOME SEARCHING UNDER WRECKAGE FOR SURVIVORS PEOPLE PULLING OUT BODY WRAPED IN BLANKET FROM UNDER WRECKAGE OF SHOP DAMAGED VEHICLE AT SCENE MORE OF WRECKAGE AT BLAST SCENE MAN COLLECTING TWISTED IRON SHEET CROWD OF PEOPLE AND HORSE AT SCENE / DAMAGED BOXES OF TOMATOES CROWD OF PEOPLE AT SMOULDERING SCENE OF MARKET CROWD OF PEOPLE NEAR WRECKED IRON STRUCTURE OF SHOPS HEAP OF DAMAGED CORRUGATED METAL SHEETS
- Embargoed: 28th August 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAEF7VEBHICY20I0TY4EZGPIXO8
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: At least 60 people were killed and 200 wounded in a blast on Thursday (August 13) at a market in Baghdad's Sadr City district, police and medical sources said, one of the largest attacks on the capital since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi took office a year ago.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing in the Shi'ite Muslim neighbourhood, but Islamic State, Sunni militants who seized swathes of northern and western Iraq last year, regularly send bombers into the capital.
"A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside Jamila market at around 6 a.m. (0300 GMT)," police officer Muhsin al-Saedi said. "Many people were killed and body parts were thrown on top of nearby buildings."
The market in the northeastern suburb is one of the biggest in Baghdad selling wholesale food items. A Reuters witness at the site saw fruit and vegetables mixed with shrapnel littering the blood-soaked blast crater.
Smoke rose from charcoaled bits of debris. Rescuers pulling bodies from the rubble waded through sheet metal that had formed the walls and roofs of vendors' stands.
Angry people gathered at the site of the explosion, some crying and shouting the names of their missing relatives and others cursing the government.
Abadi took office last summer following the army's collapse in Islamic State's takeover of the northern city of Mosul that left the Baghdad government dependent on the militias - many funded and assisted by neighbouring Iran - to defend the capital and recapture lost ground.
Security forces and militia groups are targeting Islamic State in Anbar province, the sprawling Sunni heartland in western Iraq, while Abadi has fixed his attention in recent days on a sweeping reform agenda aimed at the largest overhaul of the political system since the end of U.S. military occupation. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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