At least 20 killed in two car bombings in Baghdad
Two car bombs exploded on the streets of central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 80.
Around noon on Tuesday, June 29, a car explosion near a government office in central Baghdad in the Karkh area killed seven people and wounded 38.
Hours earlier, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the first car bomb attack in Baghdad, which killed at least 13 people and wounded 24 others. The blast occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The explosion, which occurred on the third day of Ramadan, targeted the Al-Faqmah Juice Shop, a large complex selling soft drinks, juices, and food in the busy Al-Karradeh area.
Iraqi security forces immediately took control of the scene of the incident and the surrounding streets.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack by publishing a message on its website titled "Amaq" and wrote: "This action was carried out against Shiites."
This is the second time that the Islamic State group has targeted the densely populated Shiite district of Baghdad with suicide attacks during the month of Ramadan.
Last July, a bomb blast in the same area killed at least 324 people, marking the deadliest attack in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
The explosion occurred on Tuesday after Iranian-backed Shiite forces known as the Popular Mobilization Forces pushed back Islamic State group forces from a border village on the Iraq-Syria border.
Iraqi militias and the Syrian army are said to be trying to join forces in border areas.
Ahmed al-Assadi, a spokesman for the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi), said that capturing this border point is "the first step towards liberating the entire [Iraqi-Syrian] border."
Iraqi Shiite militias and the Syrian army, the latter of which is also supported by Iran, are reportedly planning to join forces in the border areas of the two countries. It is said that establishing relations between the two sides on the border will also give Bashar al-Assad and his supporters a greater advantage in the Syrian civil war.
Source: Radio Farda
