Death Toll from ISIL Suicide Attacks in Baghdad Rises to 90

Saturday, 18 July 2015

Death Toll from ISIL Suicide Attacks in Baghdad Rises to 90

The death toll from a car bomb blast claimed by the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri group on Friday night north of Baghdad raised to 90 people.

A booby-trapped car ripped through the crowded heart of an Iraqi town north of the capital inside a market area of the Khan Bani Saad, as people shopped on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of holy month of Ramadan, officials said.

"We have 35 martyrs and more than 70 wounded," Mohammed Jawad al Hamadani, a member of the Diyala provincial council in which Khan Bani Saad is located, said after the attack immediately.

The officials said many women and children were among the victims.

Footage aired on Iraqi television showed devastation around the bomb site, with several buildings completely gutted by the blast and debris strewn over a huge area.

Markets are usually packed in the days before the holiday as people preparing for large family gatherings shop for food and clothes.

The ISIL group issued a claim on its forums saying the blast was carried out by a suicide car bomb.

"Our brother Abu Ruqayya al-Ansari advanced with his car loaded with almost three tons of explosives in the middle of a gathering for Rafidha militias," the claim said, referring to the terrorist incursion into the Shiite civic crowd.

The office of Diyala Governor Muthanna al-Tamimi issued a statement declaring three days of mourning across the province and cancelling Eid al-Fitr festivities.