Death toll from IS-claimed blasts hits 149

Iraqi authorities raised the death toll to 149 from Sunday’s truck bombing at a bustling Baghdad commercial street as prime minister Haider al-Abadi ordered new security measures in the country’s capital.

The bombing, claimed by IS, was the deadliest terror attack in Iraq in a year and one of the worst single bombings in more than a decade of war and insurgency.

It underscored the IS group’s ability to strike the Iraqi capital despite a string of battlefield losses elsewhere in the country and fuelled public anger toward the political leadership.