Iraq has suffered its deadliest day of attacks in months after three explosions targeted civilians throughout the capital.
In all, the estimates of those killed run as high as 150, with hundreds more injured. The self-proclaimed Islamic State claimed responsibility for at least one of the attacks, the deadliest of the three.
The first and biggest of the attacks was in Baghdad’s impoversished community of Sadr City, where a truck bomb detonated near a hair salon in which several brides were reportedly getting ready for a wedding. In all, at least 80 were killed there.
A second suicide bomb then detonated in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kadimayah, killing an additional 35, including five policemen. That attack was followed by a third nearby, which killed at least eight more. It appears all attacks targeted Shiite neighborhoods
U.S. officials called the attacks an act of desperation by a group losing territory “every single day.”
“As we have seen as the enemy loses more and more terrain, they resort to these more desperate attacks,” Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, commander of Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command-Operation Inherent Resolve, told Pentagon reporters Wednesday.
—Nancy A. Youssef
