BAGHDAD
Daesh has claimed responsibility for a bloody Baghdad attack that left 45 people dead and 105 injured on Thursday.
A truck loaded with explosives blew up inside a busy food market in the Shia-majority Sadr neighborhood, a police source told Anadolu Agency.
The source said scores of people were at the market when the explosion occurred and the death toll is expected to rise since many of the injured are in “critical condition”.
In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby strongly condemned the attack, as well as a car bomb attack in eastern Iraq's Diyala province on Monday and other recent attacks.
"These atrocities show once again the utter disregard ISIL [Daesh] has for innocent civilians, including women and children," Kirby said in a statement. "As Iraqis unite against ISIL and turn the tide on the battlefield, ISIL will try to maintain its campaign of terror to sow discord among the Iraqi people. The United States continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iraqi people as they confront ISIL and the violence it represents."
Daily bombings have become a familiar phenomenon in Iraq’s large provinces, often targeting civilians.
Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June 2014 when Daesh stormed the northern city of Mosul and declared a self-styled caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.
