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.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Harold Maass

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at TheWeek.com. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 launch of the U.S. print edition. Harold has worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, Fox News, and ABC News. For several years, he wrote a daily round-up of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two sons.