Daesh Responsible for Baghdad Terrorist Attack that Killed 125 People
The brazen Saturday night attack in the heart of the packed Karrada neighborhood killed at least 125 people, including 25 children and 20 women.
Families had been gathering hours after they broke the fast for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and prepared for Eid al-Fitr -- the day that marks the end of Ramadan this week.
As people congregated, shopped and watched soccer matches, the bomb-laden truck plowed into a building housing a coffee shop, stores and a gym. Firefighters rescued wounded and trapped people in adjacent buildings.
Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack. It was the latest in a string of assaults during Ramadan, a period of fasting and prayer for Muslims. At least 147 people were wounded, CNN reported.
Daesh promised an uptick in terror attacks during Ramadan. The Baghdad assault came just hours after massacres at a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and days after attacks on the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, and security targets in Yemen. There have also been recent suicide attacks in Jordan at a border crossing near Syria, and suicide attacks in a Christian area of northern Lebanon.
Last month, a gunman shot up a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people before he was killed, and an attacker killed a police commander and his partner in France.
Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Bangladesh and Yemen and there are news reports that Daesh claimed responsibility for the Jordanian attack. Experts believe the group might have conducted the attacks in Turkey and Lebanon.
Omar Mateen, the killer in Orlando, and the attacker in France both pledged allegiance to Daesh.
A second bomb exploded Sunday at an outdoor market in the Shaab neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five others, police said.
