Suicide bombings at two marketplaces in eastern Baghdad killed at least 20 people - the latest in a spate of attacks in the Iraqi capital that have left dozens dead in recent days.

In the first blast claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the attacker drove an explosives-rigged car into a vegetable market in the mainly Shia district of Jamila and detonated it, killing at least 13 people, police said.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up a few hours later at a market in the mostly Shia district of Baladiyat, killing another seven people.

Both attacks wounded at least 50 people.

ISIL claimed the first attack in an online statement saying the bomber had targeted "a gathering of Shia" in Jamila.

Jamila is the main wholesale vegetable market in Baghdad and lies in Sadr City, which has been repeatedly targeted.

A series of attacks in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities have killed more than 80 people in just over a week.

Several have been claimed by ISIL, also known as ISIS, which is coming under increasing pressure from a military offensive in Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq.

On January 2, also in Sadr City, a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives among a crowd of day labourers waiting for work, killing 35 people.

In July 2016, an ISIL car bombing at a shopping district during Ramadan killed almost 300 people, the worst such attack in years .</s>Islamic State claims Baghdad car bomb attack as wave of attacks kills more than 20

Updated

A wave of attacks in and around Baghdad has left more than 20 people dead, the latest in a series of assaults blamed on the Islamic State (IS) group.

A suicide car bomb ripped through a wholesale market in the sprawling Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City, killing at least seven people and wounding 15, Brigadier General Saad Maan, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said.

He said a member of the security forces spotted the bomber and opened fire but was unable to prevent the attack.

A policeman and two medical officials gave a higher toll, saying 16 people were killed in the attack and another 47 wounded.

At a hospital where victims of the attack had been taken, a body exploded inside a morgue refrigerator.

The medics said it appeared to have been a second attacker who was killed by shrapnel from the first explosion.

IS claimed the attack, saying it was targeting Shiites. The Sunni extremist group views Iraq's Shiite majority as apostates deserving of death.

Elsewhere in the city, a suicide bomber killed nine shoppers and wounded 16 others at a fruit and vegetable market in a mainly Shiite neighbourhood.

Three additional bombings in and around the capital killed seven people and wounded 24 others.

Police and medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information.

IS has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing dozens. A suicide bomber struck Sadr City last week, leaving more than 40 people dead.

The latest attacks come as Iraqi forces are trying to drive IS militants from the northern city of Mosul in a massive operation launched in mid-October.

In recent days, troops have pushed closer to the Tigris River, which splits the city in half.

Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, fell to IS in the summer of 2014, when the militants swept over much of northern and western Iraq.

AP

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, iraq

First posted</s>Suicide attacks kill 20 people in eastern Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Suicide bombs at two marketplaces in Baghdad, one of them claimed by Islamic State, killed at least 20 people on Sunday, police and medics said, the latest in a spate of militant attacks in the Iraqi capital that have left dozens dead.

In the first blast, the attacker drove an explosives-rigged car into a large vegetable market in the mainly Shi'ite district of Jamila, and detonated it after security forces opened fire to try to stop the vehicle, police sources said.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up a few hours later at a market in the mostly Shi'ite Baladiyat district.

The first blast killed 13, and the second blast killed seven people. More than 50 were wounded.

Islamic State claimed carrying out the first attack in an online statement, saying the bomber had targeted "a gathering of Shi'ites" in Jamila.

A series of attacks in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities have killed more than 80 people in just over a week.

Several have been claimed by the Sunni extremist Islamic State, which is coming under increasing pressure from a U.S.-backed offensive in Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi forces advanced to within several hundred metres of the Tigris river than runs through Mosul on Saturday, as their operation against the militants gathers pace.</s>At least 12 people have been killed and 50 injured in a car bomb explosion at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad, police said.

The blast took place in the mainly Shia district of Jamila, Reuters reported. Islamic State (Isis) claimed responsibility for the attack. In an online statement, the group said a suicide bomber detonated explosives.

Interior ministry spokesperson Saad Maan told AFP "A soldier at the gate of Jamila market opened fire on a suicide car bomber after noticing a suspect vehicle but the terrorist blew up his car."

Dozens of people have been killed in a wave of blasts in the Iraqi capital and other cities in recent weeks. Many of them have been claimed by Islamic State (Isis).</s>BAGHDAD: A suicide car bomb blast claimed by Islamic State killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 50 others at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, police and medical sources said.

The attacker drove the car through a gate to the market in the mainly Shi'ite district of Jamila, and detonated the bomb after security forces opened fire on the vehicle, a police source said.

Islamic State claimed the attack in an online statement, saying the bomber had targeted "a gathering of Shi'ites" in the area.

A series of attacks in the Iraqi capital and other cities in the country have killed dozens of people in just over a week.

Several have been claimed by Islamic State, which is coming under increasing pressure from a U.S.-backed offensive in Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi forces advanced to within several hundred metres of the Tigris river than runs through Mosul on Saturday, as their operation against the ultra-hardline group gathers pace.

Islamic State is likely to resort to bomb attacks and similar tactics elsewhere in Iraq as it is driven out of its Mosul stronghold.</s>People gather at the site of a car bomb attack at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday.

A car bomb blast killed at least 12 people and injured 50 others at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, police and medical sources said.

The explosion hit the mainly Shia district of Jamila, the sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.

A series of attacks in the Iraqi capital and other cities in just over a week has killed dozens of people.

Several have been claimed by Islamic State, which is coming under increasing pressure from a U.S.-backed offensive in Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq.</s>Islamic State claims Baghdad car bomb attack that killed at least 13 people, injured 50

A car bomb blast has killed at least 13 people and injured 50 others at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad, police and medical sources said.

The explosion hit the mainly Shiite district of Jamila, the sources said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said a member of the security forces spotted the car bomber and opened fire, but was unable to prevent him from detonating his vehicle outside a wholesale market in Baghdad's sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City.

A series of attacks in the Iraqi capital and other cities in just over a week has killed dozens of people.

Several have been claimed by Islamic State, which is coming under increasing pressure from a US backed offensive in Mosul.

Mosul is Islamic State's last major stronghold in Iraq.

Commercial and public areas are among the militants' most frequent targets as they seek to undermine public confidence in the Government's ability to maintain security.</s>A car-bomb explosion has been reported in eastern Baghdad.

 

 Officials said at least 12 people were killed and 50 injured in the January 8 explosion in the mainly Shi'ite district of Jamila.

 

 There has been no claim of responsibility, although the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for several other attacks in Iraq in recent days.</s>IRBIL, Iraq — ISIS has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings at crowded Baghdad markets on Sunday, killing 16 people.

The attacks happened the same day anti-ISIS forces advanced on the terror group’s stronghold in Mosul.

The first blast happened when a driver blew up his explosives-laden vehicle at the Alwat-Jamila market in eastern Baghdad’s Sadr City. At least 11 people were killed and 25 were wounded, police said.

In the second attack, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up at a busy market in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of al-Baladiyat, police said. At least five people were killed, and 12 were wounded.

ISIS’ media wing, Amaq, claimed responsibility for both explosions in statements posted on Twitter. The statements said the bombings targeted Shiites.

Car bombs and roadside bombs are not uncommon in Baghdad, but in 2017, ISIS has already carried out several attacks across the capital and killed dozens of people.

The latest wave of violence in Baghdad came as Iraqi counterterrorism forces reached the east bank of the Tigris River in eastern Mosul on Sunday, Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah said in a statement.

Iraqi security forces on Sunday killed more than 125 ISIS militants in several neighborhoods in eastern Mosul, according to a statement released by Iraq’s joint operations command.

Forty ISIS fighters were killed by counterterrorism forces as they were advancing toward the east bank of the Tigris River, the statement said, with the US-led coalition providing air support.

The Iraqi army, counterterrorism forces and fedral police have been battling ISIS in eastern Mosul since the second phase of the Mosul operation was launched about 10 days ago.

Their progress marks the first time Iraqi troops were able to reach the river since large-scale military operations to root out ISIS started in the Mosul area on October 17, 2016.</s>BAGHDAD
• A suicide bomber targeted Baghdad's main vegetable market yesterday, killing at least 12 people in the latest attack claimed by ISIS as Iraqi forces battle the militants for Mosul.

Another suicide bomber detonated explosives at a market in the Baladiyat area of east Baghdad, killing at least six people and wounding at least 16, officials said.

Iraqi forces have pushed the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) out of much of the territory it once held, but this bombing and the many others that have preceded it highlight the danger the hardliners can pose to civilians even as they lose ground.

"A soldier at the gate of Jamila market opened fire on a suicide car bomb after noticing a suspect vehicle but the terrorist blew up his car," Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said.

A police colonel and a hospital official said that at least 12 people were killed and 39 wounded at Jamila, the main wholesale vegetable market in Baghdad which lies in Sadr City, a vast, mostly Shi'ite neighbourhood in the north-east of the capital which has been repeatedly targeted.

Mr Salam Khalaf, spokesman for a hospital in Sadr City, said that it received a headless body of a person killed in the Jamila attack who was apparently meant to be a second suicide bomber. A hospital employee accidentally detonated a small explosive charge on the dead body, blowing off a mortuary door but leaving him unharmed.

ISIS issued an online statement claiming the attack in Sadr City, using a nom de guerre indicating the bomber was Iraqi and saying that he targeted members of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority, whom the radicals consider heretics.

The militants overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in a swift 2014 offensive that swept through security forces unprepared for the assault.

The number of bombings in the capital fell following the June 2014 offensive, apparently because the militants were occupied with holding territory they seized and later defending against Iraqi attacks.

Federal forces and units from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region have since pushed ISIS back in a series of battles over a period of more than two years.

On Oct 17, Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to recapture Mosul, now the country's last city in which ISIS holds significant ground. Iraqi forces punched into the city from the east, retook a series of neighbourhoods, and are now approaching the Tigris River, which divides the city into its eastern and western sides.

Separately, a massive tanker truck bomb ripped through a market by a courthouse in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz on Saturday, killing 48 people near the Turkish border.
Two suicide bombings, one using a car bomb and another with an explosive belt, take place in vegetable markets in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 50. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility.