Double suicide bombing in Baghdad kills 70

The aftermath of a suicide bombing in Baghdad.
(Image credit: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)

At least 70 people were killed in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Sunday after a pair of suicide bombers on motorcycles blew themselves up in a market.

The attack, which also injured more than 100 people at the market in Sadr City, is the deadliest to take place in Baghdad so far this year, Reuters reports, and the Islamic State has released a statement online taking responsibility for the attack. While ISIS has been driven back in the western Anbar province, it is still carrying out suicide missions in Baghdad; on Thursday, two bombers killed 15 people at a Shi'ite mosque. On his official Facebook page, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said ISIS has been targeting civilians after "it lost the initiative and its dregs fled the battlefield before our proud fighters."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.