The truck bomb blast in the north-eastern market in the country also left about 75 injured.
Over 50 people are reportedly killed after a truck bomb exploded in north-eastern Baghdad, news agencies quote Iraqi officials as saying. The blast on Thursday August 13, 2015 tore through the crowded Jameela market in the predominantly Shia district of Sadr City. Hospital sources say at least 51 people were killed and 75 others injured in the barbaric attack.
The Sunni jihadist group, Islamic State (IS), has claimed responsibility for the bombing and that it targeted Shia militiamen. In a statement posted on Twitter, IS is reported to have noted that the truck bomb targeted Shia militiamen from the Mahdi Army and the Popular Mobilisation forces, who have been battling the jihadist group in northern and western Iraq for more than a year.
Pundits say the Thursday’s bomb attack in Sadr City was one of the deadliest in the capital since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi took office a year ago. Sadr City has been the target of several bomb attacks this year claimed by IS militants, who consider Shia to be heretics. Dozens of people have been killed in bombings across Baghdad in recent months. In May and July, large car bombs exploded outside two prominent hotels.
IS also continues to control vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq, but air strikes by a US-led coalition have helped Iraqi pro-government forces regain some territory since last August. “I believe that if we find in the next several months that we’re not making the progress that we have, we should probably absolutely consider embedding some soldiers with them, and see if that would make a difference,” BBC quotes General Odierno, who retires as US Army Chief of Staff on Friday, as saying. He however warned that swift and more aggressive US military action would be effective only in the short-term.
In June, President Obama announced plans to send 450 more advisers to Iraq to help train local forces. But the Americans’ aim of training 24,000 Iraqi troops has fallen short, with only 9,000 coming forward, according to US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter.
