The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for two separate bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in the early hours of this morning.
In the deadliest attack this year, as many as 83 people are said to have been killed, many of them children, according to Associated Press reporters at the scene.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb hit Karada, a busy shopping district in the center of Baghdad, as families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan.
The Baghdad attacks come just over a week after Iraqi forces declared the city of Fallujah “fully liberated” from IS.
In a statement posted online right after the attcks, IS members claim the group had deliberately targeted Shia Muslims. The jihadist group considers Iraq’s Shia Muslim majority to be heretics and frequently targets them in attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere.
