Deadly IS attack kills 76 in Baghdad

Seventy-six people were killed and 212 wounded yesterday in a blast claimed by Islamic State, in Baghdad’s Sadr City, police and medical sources said.

It was one of the biggest attacks on the capital since Haider al-Abadi became prime minister a year ago.

“A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside Jamila market at around 6am,” police officer, Muhsin al-Saedi, said.

“Many people were killed and body parts were thrown on top of nearby buildings,” al Saedi said.

A statement circulated online by supporters of Islamic State said the blast had targeted a stronghold of the “charlatan army” and Shi’ite Muslim militias.

The market, in the Shi’ite neighbourhood, is one of the biggest in Baghdad, selling wholesale food items.

A Reuters witness saw fruit and vegetables mixed with shrapnel littering the blood-soaked blast crater. Smoke rose from charcoaled debris. Rescuers pulling bodies from the rubble stumbled over sheet metal that had formed the walls and roofs of vendors’ stands.

People gathering at the scene cried, and shouted the names of missing relatives; others cursed the government.

IS also admitted yesterday in an audio broadcast that its Egyptian affiliate had killed a Croatian hostage, a day after a photograph of a beheaded corpse purported to be that of the Croat was circulated by the group’s supporters.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said security forces still had “no confirmed information” about the beheading.

The photograph, which was circulating on Twitter accounts of supporters of the Sinai Province group, showed a man’s severed head placed on his body, with the black Islamic State flag in the background.

Next to the picture were screenshots of Arabic news articles, with the headlines: “Croatia confirms its support for Egypt in efforts to fight terrorism and extremism” and “Croatia affirms its continued support for the Kurdistan region”.

In yesterday’s daily audio broadcast of its activities across the Middle East, Islamic State said: “In Sinai Province, the soldiers of the caliphate killed the Croatian captive, whose country participated in the war on Islamic State after the deadline expired, and both the Egyptian and his own governments abandoned him.”

Last week, an online video, purportedly from Sinai Province, showed a man who identified himself as Tomislav Salopek and said the group would kill him in 48 hours, unless “Muslim women” in Egyptian jails were freed.

Reuters