Alwaght- Hours after horrifying blasts that rocked Iraqi capital early on Sunday the daeth toll had risen to 131, surpassing that of paris attack that killed 130 in November 2015.
The first explosion, a refrigerator truck packed with explosives, went off in Baghdad’s shopping area of Karada district, killing 126 people and injuring at least 200.
"It was like an earthquake. I wrapped up my goods and was heading home when I saw a fireball with a thunderous bombing," eyewitness Karim Sami told AP. "I was so scared to go back and started to make phone calls to my friends, but none answered."
Karrada is an upper middle class district where is mostly populated by Shiites but also has quite a large Christian minority. The area gets really busy after sunset during the holy month of Ramadan.
The ISIS terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the car bomb that s the deadliest since Iraqi army backed by Popular Mobolozation Forces dislodged the terror organization from its stronghold of Fallujah.
The second blast blew up shortly afterwards in Sha'ab district, which is located in the northern part of the city.
AP said that at least five people were killed in that bombing and another sixteen were injured. Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia said a suspected homemade explosive device was used to hit a market.
Baghdad was the scene of back-to-back bombings claimed by the ISIS terror group last month, when nearly 200 people lost their lives in and near the city in just a week.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi vowed Sunday that his administration will punish the perpetrators of the twin bombings, saying that victory over Takfiri terrorists is close.
The Iraqi premier, who visited the site of the blast in Karradah, said the Daesh terrorists have desperately resorted to bomb attacks targeting civilians in the wake of their recent heavy defeats at the hands of the Iraqi army and volunteer fighters in the battlefront.
Abadi also declared a three-day national mourning across Iraq, beginning on Sunday, for those died in Daesh bomb attacks.
On June 18, Iraqi forces launched an offensive against Daesh to retake the southern part of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and the town of Qayyarah, one day after the forces fully liberated the strategic city of Fallujah. Daesh proclaimed Mosul as its headquarters in Iraq when it overtook the city in 2014.
