17 killed in Baghdad bomb attack

A bomb attack in a Shia neighborhood of the Iraqi capital Baghdad has claimed the lives of at least 17 people.

According to police and medical sources, a car bomb went off on a busy commercial street in the eastern neighborhood of Sadr City late on Tuesday.

The deadly bombing also left 35 people injured.

On Monday, a bomb detonated in the commercial district of Ur in the eastern part of the capital, leaving at least a dozen people dead, while bombings and mortar attacks killed at least 13 people in the violence-hit country on Sunday.

The attacks come as Iraqi forces backed by volunteers are fighting against Takfiri militants from the ISIL terrorist group on several fronts across the country.

The ISIL terrorists control large swathes of Syria’s east and north. The group sent its Takfiri militants into Iraq in June, seizing large parts of land straddling the border between Syria and Iraq.

The terrorists are notorious for carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations and crucifixions.

Senior Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and some other Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.

MR/MHB/AS