Twin suicide attack in central Baghdad kills 20, wounds 40

Baghdad, Iraq

The toll in a twin suicide bombing in an open-air Baghdad market on Thursday morning topped 20 dead and 40 wounded, as per the interior ministry.

The Iraqi military said two attackers wearing explosive vests blew themselves up among shoppers at a crowded market in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad, adding that several people had been killed.

The ministry said the first suicide bomber had rushed into the market and claimed to feel sick so that people would gather around him. He then detonated his explosives.

As people gathered around the victims, a second attacker detonated his bomb, the ministry's statement said.

After years of deadly sectarian violence, suicide bombings have become relatively rare in the capital. The last such attack took place in June 2019 and left several people dead.

The attack was not immediately claimed but suicide attacks have been used by ultra-conservative Islamist groups, most recently the Islamic State organisation.

Baghdad has witnessed almost no such attacks since Iraqi forces and a US-backed coalition drove the Islamic State militant group from territory it controlled in Iraq in 2017.

But the group's sleeper cells have continued to operate in desert and mountain areas, typically targeting security forces or state infrastructure with low casualty attacks.

The last deadly suicide blast in the Iraqi capital took place in January 2018, also at Tayaran Square, killing at least 27 people.