At least 59 people were killed and 66 others injured in Baghdad on Friday after a vehicle blew up on a busy street filled with used cars, AP reported. The Islamic State had claimed credit for the attack, one of the deadliest in Baghdad in several months.
This is the third car bomb attack in Baghdad this week. On Wednesday, at least 15 people were killed after a suicide bomber detonated a pick-up truck in Sadr City in the east of Baghdad, Reuters reported. A day before that, four people were killed in the south of Baghdad in another car bomb explosion.
In its statement, the Islamic State said its fighters had detonated bombs in a parked car and were targeting “a gathering of Shiites”, reported AFP. The Islamic State has heightened its offensive since it lost control of eastern Mosul to a United States-backed Iraqi military. The US State Department on Thursday said these attacks exposed the extremist group’s “efforts to divide” the citizens of Iraq.
United Nations envoy in Iraq, Jan Kubis, said the terrorists were continuing with their carnage against innocent civilians. “This is totally unacceptable.”
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