Iraq: Islamic State group claims double suicide bombing in Baghdad
Members of the Iraqi security forces stand guard around the site of the double suicide bombing which bloodied Baghdad on January 21, 2020. AFP - SABAH ARAR
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The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility on the night of Thursday to Friday for the double suicide bombing that left 32 dead and 110 injured earlier in the day in a busy market in Baghdad.
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This attack is the deadliest
in more than three years in the Iraqi capital.
A first man set off his explosive belt in the midst of vendors and onlookers at the second-hand clothing market in Tayaran Square, the interior ministry said.
While a crowd was forming to try to come to the aid of the victims, a second suicide bomber detonated his explosives, he added.
In addition to the 32 dead, the Minister of Health, Hassan al-Tamimi, reported 110 injured in the metropolis of ten million inhabitants where all the medical personnel were placed on maximum alert.
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To read also: Iraq: a double suicide attack in the center of Baghdad claims many victims
Reactions
President Barham Saleh denounced on Twitter "
malicious attempts to shake the stability of the country
", while Prime Minister Moustafa al-Kazimi announced that he had replaced high-ranking officials after the attack.
"
Such a despicable act will not weaken Iraq's march towards stability and prosperity
", reacted the UN mission in
Iraq
.
Pope Francis, who is due to visit
Iraq
from March 5 to 8, said he was "
deeply saddened
" by this "
senseless act of brutality
".
The United States, France, the European Union and NATO strongly condemned these attacks and provided support for Iraq, while Iran considered that these attacks were intended to "
disrupt peace and peace. stability
”in Iraq.
The resurgence of IS
The modus operandi of the attack - a suicide bomber, followed by a second when a crowd forms to help the wounded - has already been used in the past by the jihadist group which occupied nearly a third of Iraq in 2014 before that Baghdad declares that it won its war against the jihadists at the end of 2017.
Since then, jihadist cells have been hiding in the many mountainous and desert areas of the country.
Since the “liberation”, however, ISIS has claimed responsibility for only small-scale attacks, usually carried out at night against military positions in isolated areas far from towns.
The last attacks that killed several people in Baghdad date back to June 2019.
As these attacks show, the war against ISIS is not over, it continues.
Since 2017, the group has retreated to areas where state sovereignty is weaker but continues its attacks.
Arthur Quesnay, Iraq specialist at the Noria Research Institute
Murielle Paradon
Legislative ballot
This attack comes as the authorities are discussing the organization of a legislative election, a deadline regularly accompanied by violence in
Iraq
.
The government had promised the early election of a new parliament for June.
But the authorities are now proposing to postpone it until October, in order to give the Electoral Commission more time to organize the poll.
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