A series of explosions in the Iraqi capital Baghdad today, Jan. 21, killed 32 people and wounded 110 others when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the central market. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Baghdad in more than three years.
According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, the first human bomber detonated his own explosive belt in the second-hand clothing market in Taylan Square, among vendors and onlookers. A second bomber detonated his explosives as people gathered to try to help the victims.
Iraqi health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi reported that 110 people were injured in addition to 32 deaths. According to doctors, the death toll is feared to continue to rise in the metropolis of 10 million people, and all medical personnel have been put on high alert.
In Baghdad’s hospitals, the ghosts of the Black Age have returned. AFP said only a few grieving mothers and emotional brothers were seen searching bed by bed for their loved ones.
Three years ago, on almost the same day, also in Baghdad’s busy Tayyaran Square, a suicide attack took place. That one killed 31 people.
And the closest one to now, a terrorist attack in Baghdad, was in June 2019, the bombing that killed several people.
Legislative elections
An AFP photographer said pools of blood and shredded pieces of clothing from the blasts could be seen on the busy Datayaran Square intersection in Baghdad.
The square was filled with soldiers and medics, the former blocking access, the latter busy carrying bodies or aiding the wounded, and many ambulances blared sirens to and fro.
Three years ago in 2018, on almost the same day, in the same square, a terrorist attack with the exact same modus operandi left 31 people dead.
Like that 2018 attack, this one came at a Time when authorities were discussing organizing voting for legislative elections. Iraq’s legislative elections for parliament are often accompanied by violence.
The Iraqi government had promised to hold elections for the new parliament early, in June. However, authorities are now proposing to postpone them until October to give the electoral commission more time to organize them.
However, many politicians are skeptical that early elections can be held —- either in June or October —-. This is because the necessary condition for early elections is to dissolve the parliament first. The dissolution of the parliament must be approved by the MPs’ votes. But no MPs have given any guarantees in this regard.
Iraqi President Barham Saleh denounced on Twitter “malicious attempts to destabilize the country”. The UN mission in Iraq condemned “such despicable acts that will not weaken Iraq’s progress toward stability and prosperity. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also condemned the attack.
Catholic Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit Iraq March 5-8, said he was “deeply saddened” by the “senseless act of brutality” in a telegram to the Iraqi president.
The Sleeping Cells of ISIS
No one has immediately come forward to declare responsibility for Thursday’s double suicide bombing, but the Islamic State group has used it in the past. The group captured nearly a third of Iraq in 2014 before Baghdad declared victory in the war against the jihadists in late 2017.
Since then, jihadist cells have been holed up in many parts of the country’s mountains and deserts. So far, however, the Islamic State group has claimed only small-scale attacks, usually at night, against isolated military sites far from cities.
The attack comes in the wake of a significant U.S. troop withdrawal. The U.S. has reduced the number of soldiers in Iraq to 2,500, a reduction that, in the words of Pentagon chief Christopher Miller, “reflects the growing capabilities of the Iraqi military.”
This reduction in troop strength, he said, “does not represent a change in U.S. policy. He pledged that “U.S. and coalition forces remain in Iraq to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS. The United States has led an international coalition in Iraq since 2014 in the fight against ISIS.
But nearly all forces from other coalition nations withdrew from Iraq when the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020.
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