45 killed in Baghdad car bomb blast - UPDATED

  17 February 2017    Read: 2347
45 killed in Baghdad car bomb blast - UPDATED
A car bomb explosion killed 45 people and wounded at least 56 others in southwestern Baghdad on Thursday, a security official told CNN. The blast targeted a busy car market in the predominately Shiite al-Bayaa district, the official said.

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18:55

Attack in area full of used car dealers is the latest in renewed wave of mostly suicide blasts to strike Iraqi capital.

A car packed with explosives has exploded in the south of Baghdad, causing deaths and leaving many wounded, according to Iraqi security sources.

Thursday`s attack came amid a renewed wave of violence in the Iraqi capital. Reuters news agency, quoting security and medical sources, put the death toll at 18 while AFP news agency quoting interior ministry officials said 16 people died.

The vehicle was parked in a street full of workshops and used car dealers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but nearly all suicide attacks in the city are claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

A suicide bomber detonated a pick-up truck on Wednesday in the Sadr City suburb of the capital, killing at least 15 and wounding 50. The explosion also targeted a street full of used car dealers.

On Tuesday, a car bomb explosion in southern Baghdad killed at least four people.

ISIL, also known as ISIS, has stepped up bombings in Iraq in retaliation for a US-backed campaign that dislodged the group from most Iraqi cities it took over in 2014.

Its fighters also control parts of neighbouring Syria.

Baghdad was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017, but relatively few explosions had been reported since.

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