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A suicide bomber attacked a crowded Baghdad marketplace, killing more than 100 people. The Karada district was packed with people who had gone out to socialize after breaking the Ramadan fast. USA TODAY
Iraqi security forces and civilians gather after a car bomb hit a crowded area in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad.(Photo: Khalid Mohammed, AP)
At least 115<span style="color: Red;">*</span>people were killed Sunday in a suicide bombing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in central Baghdad claimed by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Islamic State, the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital this year,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>officials said.
Among those killed were at least 15 children, 10 women and six policemen when a bomber's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>pickup truck laden with explosives went off outside a crowded shopping center, wounding 187 other people, police and Iraqi officials said, according to the Associated Press.
The bombing was the first major Islamic State terror attack in Baghdad since U.S.-backed Iraqi forces recaptured Fallujah, a city about 35 miles west of the capital, in a major defeat a week ago<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for the terror organization.
The Iraqi government had hoped that driving the militants out of Fallujah would help prevent the Islamic State<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from getting bombs into the capital, since it straddles major roads into Baghdad.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The U.S. air campaign had also begun expanding airstrikes to target car bomb factories used by militants in an effort to stop high-profile terror attacks, which pose a risk to the stability of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
But the bombing reflects a shift in strategy for the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. As it has been pushed out of territory it controls in Iraq and<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Syria it has resorted to more conventional terror attacks against civilian targets.
“They’re kind of regressing back to being a terrorist organization,” Lt. Gen. Charles Brown, who commands U.S. air forces in the Middle East, said in a recent interview with USA TODAY.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and lawmakers visited the bombing site in the Karada district hours later. Video footage on social media showed an angry crowd, with people calling al-Abadi a “thief” and shouting at his convoy, the AP<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reported. Eyewitnesses said the crowd pelted the al-Abadi’s car with rocks, shoes and jerry cans.
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Before the government launched the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Fallujah operation in late May,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the prime minister had faced some protests over security concerns. In one month, Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and diplomatic missions,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was stormed twice by anti-government protesters.
USA TODAY
Iraqi commander: 'Fallujah fight is over'
A second bombing Sunday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Baghdad’s northern Shaab area killed five people and wounded 16, police said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>No group claimed responsibility for that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>attack, which<span style="color: Red;">*</span>involved an improvised explosive device.
Sunday's major bombing occurred shortly after midnight, when people were on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan. Most of the victims were inside a multi-story shopping and amusement mall, where dozens burned to death or suffocated, the AP reported.
Zahraa Al-Nasiri, who lives a few streets from the bombing, said the blast<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was so so strong it "pulled open the doors in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>our home."
"After the explosion, there was a huge fire at the clothing and perfume stores," <span style="color: Red;">*</span>she<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“Families inside the neighboring apartments were trapped inside because of the fire." The blaze was finally extinguished around 7 a.m. local time.
“There are many missing people," she said. "It is a real tragedy. My friend is still looking for her young brother."
Al-Mujtaba Al-Waeli, 28, a classical musician whose office is in the Karrada district, knows many who were killed in the attack.
"One of my colleagues at work lost her husband, son and two brothers. Three brothers I know were killed too. I do not know how (their families) can bear it," he said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"You study, work and build a social network around you just to be killed in a single moment by an ignorant suicide bomber, someone who knows nothing about you. It's a catastrophe."
USA TODAY
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The White House condemned Sunday's bombings.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“These attacks only strengthen our resolve to support Iraqi security forces as they continue to take back territory from ISIL," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Col. Chris Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, said the military is providing technical and intelligence support to the Iraqis to help curb the recent rash of bombings.
The attack was the deadliest in the capital this year,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to the AP. On May 11, Islamic State<span style="color: Red;">*</span>militants carried out three car bombings in Baghdad, killing 93 people.
Contributing:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Gilgamesh Nabeel in Istanbul<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
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