The death toll from the devastating back-to-back market bombings in Iraq carried out by the ISIS group in eastern Baghdad climbed to 73 on Monday, officials said. Several of the critically wounded died overnight while 112 people remain in hospital, two police officials said.
Also, at least five people were still missing after the blast that ripped through the crowded Mredi market in the Shiite district of Sadr City on Sunday, followed by a suicide bombing amid the crowd that had quickly gathered at the site to help the victims.
Three medical officials confirmed the latest death toll, which rose from the toll of 59 reported late on Sunday. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media. Iraq’s Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, called on security forces to “exert further efforts to prevent the terrorists from carrying out their crimes against innocent civilians.”
Al-Abadi, in a statement released on Sunday, said the attacks “will not stop us ... But they will increase the determination” of the army, security forces and paramilitary troops to dislodge the militants from areas under their control.
The special UN envoy to Iraq, Jan Kubis, called the Sadr City bombings a “particularly vicious and cowardly terrorist attack” aimed against “peaceful civilians who were going about their daily business.”
“It is clearly aimed at inflaming sectarian strife,” he said on Monday. The Islamic State group, which controls key areas in northern and western Iraq, promptly claimed responsibility for Sunday’s blasts.