UPDATES WITH INCREASED DEATH TOLL AND DAESH CLAIM OF RESPONSIBILITY
By Ali Jawad
BAGHDAD (AA) – The death toll from Sunday’s twin car bombings in the city of Al-Samawah in Iraq’s southern Muthanna province has risen to 36 with another 90 injured, a local medical official told Anadolu Agency.
Adel Mohamed, an official at the Muthanna Health Department, said most of those killed were civilians, adding that many of those injured were in critical condition.
The Daesh terrorist group, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for the attack on one of its affiliated websites.
Shortly after the attack, Baqer al-Sayed, a local police official, had told Anadolu Agency that the twin blasts had targeted a group of civilians in a car park in the city’s downtown district.
Unlike other parts of violence-hit Iraq, Al-Samawah — a Shia-majority city located some 250 kilometers south of Baghdad — rarely witnesses major acts of terrorism.
Sunday’s car-bomb attack comes one day after 15 people were killed in a suicide blast in Baghdad that targeted a group of Shia pilgrims for which Daesh also claimed responsibility.
