VIDEO+PICS: Two Massive Blasts Kill 83 in Baghdad, ISIS Claims Responsibility

Sun Jul 3, 2016 11:36:55

At least 83 people have been killed and tens more injured as two separate blasts rock the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The first blast happened in the city’s central Karada district outside a local restaurant early on Sunday morning, while the second explosion went off shortly afterwards in eastern Baghdad.

The ISIS terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the first blast, but says 40 Shia Muslims were killed and 80 more wounded in the attack.

Early reports had put the number of the victims at nearly two dozen, but the Security Committee of Baghdad Provincial Council said the death toll from the blasts had soared to 60, with some 100 others wounded, Iraq’s Al Sumaria TV reported.

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the first blast, but says 40 Shia Muslims were killed and 80 more wounded in the attack.

Facing heavy military operations aimed at its main strongholds in Iraq, ISIS terrorists frequently target various neighborhoods of Baghdad, particularly those populated by Shia Muslims, to undermine government efforts to maintain security.

Baghdad was the scene of back-to-back bombings claimed by the Daesh terror group last month, when nearly 200 people lost their lives in and near the city in just a week.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since ISIS terrorists mounted an offensive in the country in June 2014, Press TV reported.

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