DHAKA: Death toll rose to 70 and some 100 people are ungoing treatment over three bombings in Baghdad on Tuesday (May 17). 

A suicide bombing in a marketplace in the northern, mainly Shia district of al-Shaab killed 38 people and wounded over 70, while a car bomb in the nearby Sadr City neighbourhood left at least 19 more dead and 17 wounded, Al Jazeera reports on Wednesday (May 18).

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group claimed responsibility of the al-Shaab attack, which it said was carried out by a man identified as Abu Khattab al-Iraqi.

The bomber threw hand grenades and then detonated a suicide belt, it said.

A spokesperson for the Baghdad Operations Command told state television the attacker detonated an explosives-filled vest in coordination with a planted bomb.

Initial investigations revealed that the bomber was a woman, he said.

Another car bombing, in the mixed Shia-Sunni southern Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Rasheed, killed six and wounded 21, the sources said, in what a military spokesperson described as a suicide attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in al-Rasheed and Sadr City.

However, ISIL has claimed a series of other attacks in and near Baghdad that have killed more than 100 people in seven days.

‘The spike in deadly bomb attacks across Baghdad, in predominantly Shia areas, will outrage anyone who places value on human life,’ James Lynch, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said.

The man was working under the non-profit Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) in the Daquq area, about 200km north of Baghdad.

Alex Van Roy, FSD programme manager, said the man was killed instantly when the bomb containing up to 7kg of explosives blew up.

BDST: 1055 HRS, May 18, 2016
SAS/AKA