25-04-2024 03:47 PM Jerusalem Timing

Baghdad Attacks Kill, Injure Dozens

Baghdad Attacks Kill, Injure Dozens

Attacks in Baghdad including a suicide bombing inside a restaurant killed 27 people on Saturday, hours before a years-old nightly curfew is due to be lifted, officials said.

Attacks in Baghdad including a suicide bombing inside a restaurant killed 27 people on Saturday, hours before a years-old nightly curfew is due to be lifted, officials said.

The suicide bomber struck in the Baghdad Jadida area in the capital's east, killing at least 22 people and wounding at least 39.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but suicide bombings are a tactic almost exclusively employed by Takfiri militants in Iraq, including ISIL.

Another attack -- said to have been either a suicide or roadside bombing -- hit a commercial area in central Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding at least 13.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered the move earlier in the week, a decision his spokesman said was taken so there would "be normal life as much as possible, despite the existence of a state of war".

The Iraqi army, backed by popular mobilization, has been engaged since last June in a battle with the Takfiris. The army regained control of several areas across the country which were seized by ISIL.