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| A fire raged hours after the bombing |
BAGHDAD – At least 125 people have been killed and about 150 injured in an explosion claimed by the ISIS in Baghdad, Iraqi police say.
A car bomb exploded on a busy street in the central district of Karrada late on Saturday.
The mainly Shi’a area was busy with shoppers late at night because it is the holy month of Ramadan.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was met by angry crowds while visiting the scene of the blast on Sunday.
A second bomb also exploded at about midnight in a predominantly Shi’a area north of the capital, killing another five people.
The bombing in Karrada is the deadliest in Iraq this year.
It comes a week after Iraqi security forces recaptured the city of Falluja from ISIS militants. Authorities say the city was used as a launch pad for attacks on Baghdad.
Iraq’s highest Sunni religious body, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, called the bombing a “bloody crime, regardless of who carried it out or what their motivations were.”
There are reports that the source of the blast, which struck close to midnight, was a refrigerator van packed with explosives.
Many of those killed were children, Associated Press reported. Families gathered on the street on Sunday for news of missing loved ones.
The explosion caused a huge fire on the main street. Several buildings, including the popular al-Hadi Centre, were badly damaged.
Abadi visited the scene in the morning, and was met by crowds who shouted “thief” and “dog”. Video posted online appeared to show his convoy being pelted with stones.
-BBC, The AANews
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