Jul. 22, 2015 Ice offered to sweltering Iraqis turns deadly after ISIS de

Jul. 22, 2015

اقتباس :: Ice offered to sweltering Iraqis turns deadly after ISIS detonates car bomb

More than 100 people were killed, dozens were injured, and a massive crater in the floor of the marketplace bears mute witness to the despicable scene of mass slaughter.

اقتباس :: LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online): "What we witnessed... cannot be described. Fire, bodies, wounded, women, and children screaming... Khan is now a disaster zone," a shopkeeper at the street market said.

"The toll so far is 90 martyrs and 120 wounded, and we have between 17 and 20 missing," Abbas Hadi Saleh, the top official in Khan Bani Saad says.
Witnesses say the driver told locals to gather around the vehicle, telling them he was selling ice at a deeply discounted price.
Ice was seen on the back of the truck, covering up the heavy explosives. More than 100 people were killed, dozens were injured, and a massive crater in the floor of the marketplace bears mute witness to the despicable scene of mass slaughter.
Officials said at least 15 children were among the dead.

"People were burning in their cars because no ambulances or fire engines were able to reach them," a municipal employee who drives a street sweeper said. He said that he used his truck to help put out the fires that the blast caused in the market area.

Several collapsed buildings were still smoldered 12 hours after the attack.

The death toll is expected to climb as more bodies are retrieved from the rubble of collapsed buildings.

"Every year (during Ramadan) there's a bombing. We are guilty of being Shiite," one witness said. "This is the biggest in Diyala since 2003."
Markets are usually packed in the days before the holiday.
"Eid al-Fitr is one of the most important dates in the Islamic calendar and traditionally sees families gather to celebrate the end of a month during which many fast from dawn to dusk," according to Daily Mail.
The attack targeted Shiite militias, according to ISIS, a claim it often makes even when most of the victims are civilians.

"Baghdad announced in January that Iraqi forces had "liberated" Diyala, significant parts of which had been overrun by ISIS after the jihadists launched a brutally effective offensive in June 2014," according to Daily Mail.

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