ISIS claims responsibility for Baghdad explosion killing 28 and injuring 54

Aftermath of an ISIS attack in Baghdad on Dec. 31
(Image credit: Sabah Arar/Getty Images)

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a Saturday morning attack at a market in Baghdad, Iraq, that killed at least 28 people and injured about 54 more. The circumstances of the attack are unclear, but it is believed to have included at least one suicide bombing and perhaps a car bomb as well. The market was targeted to kill Shi'ite Muslims, whom ISIS, as Sunni extremists, regard as apostates.

This incident comes as ISIS is poised to lose control of Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq. As the terrorist organization has ceded territory over the past year, it has significantly shifted focus in a way that resembles parent group al Qaeda's tactic of organizing low-cost terror attacks that do not require an army structure.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.