Escalating insurgency: Da’ish car bomb kills at least 52 in Baghdad

More than 50 others wounded in the deadliest such attack in the war-ravaged country this year

BAGHDAD: A massive car bomb ripped through a used car market in the south of Iraq’s capital on Thursday, killing more than 50 people in the deadliest such attack in the country this year, security officials said.

Da’ish, which is on the defensive after losing control of eastern Mosul to a US-backed Iraqi military offensive, claimed responsibility for the bombing in an online statement.

The explosion, which sent a thick plume of dark grey smoke billowing into the sky above Bayaa neighbourhood, sowed carnage and caused extensive destruction. “A terrorist car bomb attack struck near car dealerships in Bayaa,” a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command said in a statement.

An interior ministry official gave a death toll of 52 and said that more than 50 other people were also wounded. Hospital officials confirmed the figures. He said the emergency services were struggling to cope with the scope of the attack, which ripped through the busy car market at around 4:15pm and warned that the death toll may yet rise.

Security officials could be seen inspecting the site before the sun went down, while some distressed civilians searched for relatives and others took pictures with their mobile phones of the large crater caused by the blast.

“There are so many victims, not just one or two,” said Nasser, a young man wearing blood-stained surgical gloves who was near the site of the explosion and rushed to the scene to help the wounded. “There was one here, we carried him,” he said, pointing to a spot behind him. “We found a hand here, a leg and heart over there, everything.”

The site of the bombing is an open space used as a second-hand car market where hundreds of private sellers park their vehicles and wait all day to discuss prices with prospective buyers. “Just the cars, you can be sure of that, there’s always two or three people standing next to each car,” Nasser said, explaining the high toll.

The explosion occurred in the same neighbourhood where a car bomb blast killed at least four people on Tuesday. At least 11 people were also killed in a suicide car bomb attack claimed by Da’ish on Wednesday on the edge of Sadr City.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2017.