ISIL claims Baghdad car bomb attack

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ISIL has claimed responsibility for a car bomb blast that killed 12 people and wounded 50 others at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad on Sunday.

The terrorist group said in an online statement that a suicide car bomber denoted his explosives at a checkpoint at a busy intersection in the Jamila area.

People gather at the site of a car bomb attack at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad, Iraq, on January 8, 2017. /Reuters Photo

The militant group, whose control over Iraqi territories has significantly weakened in 2016, has been responsible in most cases for suicide attacks targeting Iraqi security forces as well as civilians.

Jamila is the main wholesale vegetable market in Baghdad and lies in Sadr City, a vast and predominantly Shiite neighborhood in the capital which has been repeatedly targeted.

People gather at the site of a car bomb attack at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad, Iraq, on January 8, 2017. / Reuters Photo

The massive blast left many shops and stalls destroyed and set fire to several nearby vehicles, according to Saad Maan, spokesman for the country’s interior ministry.

"A soldier at the gate of Jamila market opened fire on a suicide car bomb after noticing a suspect vehicle but the terrorist blew up his car," Maan said.

The attack came as Iraqi security forces – backed by anti-ISIL international coalition, Kurdish militants, Sunni tribesmen and Shia militia – are carrying out a major offensive to drive out ISIL from its last major stronghold in and around Mosul.

People gather around a charred vehicle following a blast caused by a bomb-laden vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq on January 2, 2017. / CFP Photo

Many Iraqis blame the chronic instability in the country, the vicious cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as ISIL, on the US, which invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003.

Washington pulled out its forces in 2011, but the country had already slipped into chaos.

The most recent major attack claimed by ISIL was on January 2, also in Sadr City, when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives among a crowd of day laborers waiting for work, killing 35 people.

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