Toll rises from deadliest Iraq bombing in years

The site of a suicide bombing Sunday in Iraq.
(Image credit: Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty Images)

The death toll from a Sunday truck bombing in central Baghdad has risen to at least 215, officials said Monday, with 175 injured and 81 bodies burned so badly they need DNA testing for identification.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, its third major attack in days. The bombing targeted a busy shopping district and was believed to be the deadliest single bombing in the Iraqi capital in at least seven years. It fueled calls for a crackdown on ISIS terrorist cells, and overshadowed the government's recent success regaining control of Fallujah, near Baghdad, from ISIS forces.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.