Twin bombing attacks kill at least 59 in Iraq

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

Militants attacked an outdoor market Sunday in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 59 people and wounding nearly 100, officials said.

An explosion ripped through the crowded Mredi market in the Shiite district of Sadr City, a police officer said. Minutes later, a suicide bomber blew himself up amid the crowd that had gathered at the site of the first bombing, he added.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sad Main said the bombings killed 38 people and wounded another 62.

Multiple hospital officials later increased the casualty toll to 59 dead and 95 wounded. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

The attack was the deadliest in a wave of recent explosions that have targeted commercial areas in and outside Baghdad.

In the town of Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, three shoppers were killed and 10 wounded in a bomb explosion, another police officer said. Four others were killed in a separate bomb attack in Baghdad’s southern Dora neighborhood, he added.

The Islamic State-affiliated Aamaq news agency later claimed responsibility for the Sadr City bombings.