Baghdad suicide bombings highlight Islamic State group’s enduring threat

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for Thursday twin attacks in a crowded Baghdad market, which killed at least 32 people in the Iraqi capital’s first major suicide bombing for three years.

The bombing targeted “apostate Shiites”, the group said in a statement on an IS group-affiliated website late Thursday, a modus operandi that has been criticised by its main jihadist rival al Qaeda.

The IS group has rarely been able to penetrate the Iraqi capital since the defeat of its self-proclaimed caliphate in 2017, but attacks have continued elsewhere in the country and in neighbouring Syria.

The US-led coalition that helped crush the caliphate has recently ceased combat activities and is gradually drawing down its troop presence in Iraq, sparking fears of a resurgence of the jihadist terror group.

Source: France 24