16 Dead in Baghdad Twin Blasts

At least 16 people have been killed in two car bombs that went off in the Sadr district of Iraq’s capital Baghdad, police sources have told Al Jazeera.


The blasts happened at around 6:30 pm (15:30 GMT) on Thursday in two different parts of the district.

Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said: “One of the car bombs hit in Sadr City hit a small street with small cafes there that were packed with people having dinner. The other one was at a crowded outdoor market.”

Later on, a roadside bomb exploded near a restaurant in Baghdad’s Shia northern neighbourhood of Shaab, killing three people and wounding 12 others, the AP news agency reported.

Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

Iraq sees near-daily bombings and other attacks mainly targeting Shia neighbourhoods and security forces. The attacks are often claimed by the Sunni Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group which seized much of northern and western Iraq in a summer offensive