PHOTO: Scene of Wednesday’s car bombing in a market in Sadr City district of Baghdad


UPDATE 1445 GMT: Two more bombs in Baghdad have raised Wednesday’s death toll to 88.

A suicide car bomb targeted a police station in Baghdad’s northwest Kadhimiyah neighborhood and killed 18 people, of whom five were policemen. Another 34 people were wounded.

In northern Baghdad a suicide car bomb in the neighborhood of Jamiya killed seven and wounded 22.


ORIGINAL ENTRY: At least 63 people were killed on Wednesday by an Islamic State car bomb in a mainly-Shia area of Iraq’s capital Baghdad.

Another 85 people were wounded in the bombing of a market in Sadr City, the deadliest attack inside the city for months.

A pickup truck packed with explosives went off at rush hour near a beauty salon. Many of the victims were women, including several brides who were preparing for their weddings.

The bodies of two men said to be grooms were found in an adjacent barber shop. Wigs, shoes, and children’s toys were scattered on the ground, as rescue workers stepped through puddles of blood to put out fires and remove victims.

The Islamic State said in a statement, circulated online by supporters, that it had targeted Shia militia fighters gathered in the area.

Security has gradually improved in Baghdad since a series of ISIS bombings last summer, but violence is still frequent.

The bombing comes amid a political crisis in which the Government has been crippled for more than a month. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s attempt to pursue reforms and reshape his Cabinet, bringing in technocrats, has been blocked by political parties. In late April, as Parliament again failed to convene with a quorum, protesters moved into the fortified Green Zone and briefly occupied the Parlimentary chamber.

Many of the protesters were supporters of the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has widespread backing in Sadr City.