Baghdad: Double bomb attack hits Al Sinak market

At least 27 killed and dozens wounded as blasts triggered by suicide bombers hit crowd during morning rush.

Iraqis look at the aftermath following a double blast in Al Sinak [Sabah Arar/AFP]

by Al Jazeera

At least 27 people were killed and 57 others wounded as two bombs exploded in the centre of Baghdad, according to police officials.

Police said the blasts, triggered by two suicide bombers went off on Saturday near car spare parts shops in Al Sinak during the morning rush. The first blast took place at the market’s entrance and the second was inside the area, police said.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Amaq website.

Baghdad has been on high alert since October 17, the start of Iraq’s largest military operation in years to retake ISIL’s stronghold of Mosul in the country’s north.

ISIL took Mosul in 2014, and has launched several attacks in Baghdad in recent months.

The area that was targeted on Saturday is packed with wholesale markets and usually teeming with daily workers unloading vans and wheeling carts around.

“Many of the victims were people from the spare parts shops in the area, they were gathered near a cart selling breakfast when the explosions went off,” said Ibrahim Mohammed Ali, who owns a nearby shop.

Torn clothes and mangled iron were strewn across the ground in pools of blood at the site of the wreckage near Rasheed street, one of the main thoroughfares in Baghdad, an AFP news agency photographer said.