At least 23 killed in spate of bombings in and around Baghdad
String of ISIS-claimed attacks in Iraqi capital has claimed dozens of lives over the last week
A wave of attacks in and around Baghdad on Sunday killed at least 23 people, the latest in a series of assaults blamed on the the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
A suicide car bomb ripped through a wholesale market in the sprawling Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City, killing at least seven people and wounding 15, said Brig.-Gen. Saad Maan, the Interior Ministry spokesman. He said a member of the security forces spotted the bomber and opened fire but was unable to prevent the attack.
A policeman and two medical officials gave a higher toll, saying 16 people were killed in the attack and another 47 wounded.
Exploding body
At a hospital where victims of the attack had been taken, a body exploded inside a morgue refrigerator. The medics said it appeared to have been a second attacker who was killed by shrapnel from the first explosion.
ISIS claimed the attack, saying it was targeting Shias. The Sunni extremist group views Iraq's Shia majority as apostates deserving of death.
Elsewhere in the city, a suicide bomber killed nine shoppers and wounded 16 others at a fruit and vegetable market in a mainly Shia neighbourhood. Three additional bombings in and around the capital killed seven people and wounded 24 others.
Police and medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
String of attacks over last week
ISIS has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing dozens of people. A suicide bomber struck Sadr City last week, killing more than 40 people.
The latest attacks come as Iraqi forces are trying to drive ISIS militants from the northern city of Mosul.
Iraqi special forces reached the eastern bank of the Tigris river in Mosul on Sunday for the first time in a three-month, U.S-backed offensive to capture the city from ISIS militants, who still control its entire western half.
Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, fell to ISIS in the summer of 2014, when the militants swept over much of northern and western Iraq.