Sick suicide bombers slaughter 32
BAGHDAD: A rare twin suicide bombing in Iraq killed 32 people and wounded 110 at a crowded market in Baghdad, the city’s deadliest attack in three years.

The first attacker drew a crowd at the bustling market in the capital’s Tayaran Square by pretending to feel sick, then detonated his explosives belt, the interior ministry said. As more people then flocked to the scene to help the victims, a second suicide bomber set off his explosives.

The open-air market, where second-hand clothes are sold at stalls, had been teeming with people after the lifting of nearly a year of COVID-19 restrictions.

The health ministry said those who lost their lives had died at the scene of the attack, and that most of the wounded had been treated and released from hospital.

The attack was not immediately claimed but suicide bombings have been used by jihadist groups, including Islamic State.

They were commonplace in Baghdad during the sectarian bloodletting that followed the USled invasion of 2003, and later on as the IS swept across much of Iraq and also targeted the capital.

But with the group’s territorial defeat in late 2017, suicide bombings in the city have become rare.

President Barham Saleh led politicians in condemning the attack. He said the government would “stand firm against these attempts to destabilise our country”.