Thursday 7 July 2016 15:50 UTC
Undetected by state forces, terrorists ploughed a refrigerated truck
carrying explosives into the densely populated well-to-do district of
al-Karrada in central Baghdad. “People came to buy clothes to celebrate
Eid. Now they are buying coffins,” one survivor lamented.
This is the latest attack in a long series that IS has launched against civilians – both Shia and Sunni – in Bangladesh, Turkey, and most recently Saudi Arabia. Their violence respects no faith.
The series of fires the explosion ignited converged into a firestorm, ravaging two shopping arcades in the commercial centre. Bodies recovered from beneath the rubble were burned beyond recognition – sons unidentifiable to their mothers. Hadi mall, consumed head-to-toe by the inferno, was not designed with fire escape routes in mind, as Iraqi analyst Sajad Jiyad wrote in his blog-post. “There were no emergency exits, the door to the roof was welded shut” to keep thieves out. While the same risks easily apply to other buildings dotted around Baghdad, no official statements on the subject of fire safety have been issued.
This is the latest attack in a long series that IS has launched against civilians – both Shia and Sunni – in Bangladesh, Turkey, and most recently Saudi Arabia. Their violence respects no faith.
The series of fires the explosion ignited converged into a firestorm, ravaging two shopping arcades in the commercial centre. Bodies recovered from beneath the rubble were burned beyond recognition – sons unidentifiable to their mothers. Hadi mall, consumed head-to-toe by the inferno, was not designed with fire escape routes in mind, as Iraqi analyst Sajad Jiyad wrote in his blog-post. “There were no emergency exits, the door to the roof was welded shut” to keep thieves out. While the same risks easily apply to other buildings dotted around Baghdad, no official statements on the subject of fire safety have been issued.