Update: 12 killed, 24 wounded at busy market in eastern Baghdad

Monday 28-08-2017 - 02:31 PM

News Agencies

12 killed, 24 wounded at busy market in eastern Baghdad, Photo Credit: Reuters

Baghdad - The death toll from the car bomb explosion at a busy market area in eastern Baghdad on Monday rose to 12 people killed and 24 others wounded, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

The blast took place before noon when a booby-trapped car went off near the electricity office at Jamila wholesale market in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr city, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Many nearby shops and stalls were destroyed and several civilian cars were damaged by the blast, which caused a plume of grey smoke to rise above the scene, the source said.

Terrorist acts, violence and armed conflicts killed 239 civilians and wounded 2,737 others in July across Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said earlier in the month.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the United States that invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003, under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country.

The war led to the ouster and eventual execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but no such weapons have been found.