At least 65 people were killed in a triple bombing that targeted a tent filled with mourners in Baghdad’s Shia Muslim stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, police and medical sources said.
A car bomb went off near the tent where a funeral was being held, a suicide bomber driving a car then blew himself up, and a third explosion followed as police, ambulances and firefighter were gathering at the scene, police said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, in which at least 120 others were wounded, medics said.
“Crowds of people were visiting the tent to offer their condolences when suddenly a powerful blast … threw me to ground,” said 35-year-old Basim Raheem.
“When I tried to get up, a second blast happened. My clothes were covered with blood and human flesh. I thought I was wounded, but later discovered I was lying in a pool of others’ blood,” he added.
A Reuters reporter said distraught survivors attacked policemen and firefighters who tried to move them away from the scene. Puddles of blood surrounded the tent.
In a separate incident, at least eight people were killed when a car bomb exploded in a busy street in the predominantly Shia Ur district of northern Baghdad, police said.
Iraq’s delicate sectarian balance has come under growing strain from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, where mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are fighting to overthrow a leader backed by Shia Iran.
Both Sunnis and Shias have crossed into Syria from Iraq to fight on opposite sides of the conflict.
So0urce: bdnews24
