July 2016 Baghdad bombings
| July 2016 Karrada bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part of Iraqi Civil War (2014–present) | |
Immediate aftermath of the bombing, with smoke spewing from inside the building
|
|
| Location | Karrada, Baghdad, Iraq |
| Date | 3 July 2016 00:05 AST (UTC+03) |
| Target | Iraqi Shias |
|
Attack type
|
Car bombing, suicide bombing |
| Deaths |
341+ total:
|
|
Non-fatal injuries
|
246 total:
|
| Perpetrator |
 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
|
| Motive | Loss of Fallujah |
341+ total:
246 total:
On 3 July 2016, a coordinated bomb attack in Baghdad resulting in the deaths of over 300 and injured hundreds more. A few minutes after midnight local time (2 July, 21:00 UTC), a suicide truck targeted the mainly Shia district of Karrada, busy with late night shoppers for Ramadan. A second roadside bomb was detonated in the suburb of Sha'ab, killing at least five.
The Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, naming the Karrada bomber as Abu Maha al-Iraqi. There were reports that the source of the blast was a refrigerator van packed with explosives. The explosion caused a huge fire on the main street. Several buildings, including the popular Hadi Center, were badly damaged. The bombing is the second-worst suicide attack in Iraq by death toll after the 2007 Yazidi communities bombings and the deadliest terrorist attack in Iraq carried out by a single bomber.
The 17 May 2016 Baghdad bombings were perpetrated by ISIS, killing over 101 people. Some security analysts saw the bombings in Iraq's capital as an effort to distract the attention of the Iraqi security forces from the battle of Fallujah. The 2016 battle of Fallujah came to a close in June 2016 with the Iraqi government regaining control of the city of Fallujah from ISIS.
The Baghdad bombings were the third mass killing of civilians by ISIS-affiliated militants in recent days, following the 28 June attack in Istanbul, Turkey, and the 1 July attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
ISIS has recently sent out calls for increased attacks during the month long celebration of Ramadan.
The suicide truck bomb hit a shopping area in Karrada, where many people were on the street during the evening in order to shop and to break their Ramadan fast with iftar at local cafes. The bomb was concealed within a refrigerator truck driven by a suicide bomber. It was the first major assault in Baghdad since the Iraqi government's recapture of Fallujah from the Islamic State in June 2016. A Western security source in Baghdad told the BBC the bomb used "a new tactic which helped it to move undetected through checkpoints ... We've never seen it before, and it's very worrying." The bombers reportedly used a "unique" mix of chemicals for the bomb. "We are used to big fires but the chemicals in this bomb were used for the first time in Iraq," according to Brigadier General Kadhim Bashir Saleh of the Iraqi Civil Defense Force.
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