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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.