Terror once again struck the heart of Baghdad and did it in the way that the Iraqi capital has suffered so many times since the 2003 US invasion. Two suicide bombers killed themselves in a central market and at least 32 people lost their lives and another 100 were killed. wounds in what was the bloodiest attack since January 2018. The terrorists once again chose Tayaran Square to blow themselves up and did so in two stages to cause as much damage as possible.
A first suicide bomber pretended to be sick and threw himself on the ground to attract attention, when they came to help him, he activated the explosives belt in the popular market for buying and selling clothes and shoes. When people came to help the victims, the second explosion came, according to the account of the Interior spokesman, General Khalid al Muhanna. In the attack two years ago 35 people lost their lives and 90 were injured.
No group claimed responsibility for the action, but it follows the pattern of the operations of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) that repeatedly struck Baghdad before the establishment of the caliphate. Iraqi analyst Sajad Jivad told the Al Jazeera network that “it is an attack with the ISIS seal (…) and it signifies a serious security breach by a government that had already been advised of the group’s operations in rural areas. ». Although Baghdad proclaimed a military victory over ISIS at the end of 2017, the jihadist cells have remained active, especially along the border with Syria where clashes with the security forces have not ceased.
Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi called an emergency meeting of the government and security agencies to analyze what happened. Political tension grows in the country after the authorities’ decision to delay the elections from June to October and in Iraq, as has been seen in the recent past, political instability is accompanied by an increase in violence. The alleged reason for this delay is the “lack of time” to prepare the elections and Al Kadhimi, a journalist turned spy chief and head of government since the summer, faces the threat of the return of the Baghdad attacks.
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