Baghdad twin suicide bombing: ISIL claims responsibility

The ISIL group claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing - the deadliest in nearly three years - that broke into a crowded market in central Baghdad on Thursday, killing 32 people, and injuring 110 others.

The first attacker gathered a crowd at the busy market in the capital’s Tayaran Square by pretending to feel unwell, then shot his ammunition belt, the Interior Ministry announced.

As more people appeared at the scene to help the victims, another suicide bomber set off their explosives.

The attack is the first bombing in Baghdad since January 2018, killing 35 people and injuring 90 in the same class of people killed on Thursday.

A news agency photographer at the scene stated security forces had cordoned off the area where blood-soaked clothing was scattered on the dirt roads and paramedics were rushing to evacuate the casualties.

The Health Ministry said that those who lost their lives were killed during the attack, and most of the injured were treated and discharged from the hospital.

After midnight, ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack on its online promotional channels.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadimi praised the civilians 'resolution' against ISIL's heinous crime.

"Our people have proved their resolve in the face of terrorism in the country," he said on Twitter, referring to his brief ISIL in Arabic.

"Bab al-Sharqi had a message of willingness, disregard, and uncommon courage to live among our people to face terrorism at the scene of the heinous crime."

Al-Qadimi reshuffled several top security officials after the attack.

Such violence was common in Baghdad during the communal bloodshed that followed the 2003 US-led invasion and later swept through much of Iraq as ISIL and also targeted the capital.

But with the group's regional defeat at the end of 2017, suicide explosions became rare in the city. Baghdad's concrete blast walls were removed and outposts across the city were removed.

President Barham Saleh condemned Thursday's attack, saying "the government will stand firmly against these slanderous attempts to destabilize our country".

Pope Francis, who hopes to travel to Iraq in March, carried out an "insensitive act of cruelty".

The attack was strongly condemned by the US, the United Nations, and the European Union.