• This was the third time Daesh targeted Sadr City this year, the Iraqi military said

Arab News

DUBAI: The UAE and Bahrain have condemned the Daesh bomb attack on a market in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Sadr City, one of the deadliest in years in the war-scarred Iraq.

The bloody carnage killed at least 30 people, mostly women and children, and injured about 60 others who packed the Woheilat market on the eve of Eid Al-Adha shopping for gifts.

“The UAE utterly condemns these criminal acts and rejects all forms of violence and terrorism aimed at destabilizing security and stability in contravention of all religious and human values and principles, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM.

A separate statement from Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed its solidarity with Iraq and its “firm stance against violence, extremism and terrorism of all forms.”

Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack on the Telegram messenger service, saying a suicide bomber carried out the attack by detonating an explosives-filled belt in the middle of the bustling market.

This was the third time Daesh targeted Sadr City this year, the Iraqi military said.

In June, 15 people were wounded when a bomb in another market in the city was detonated, while in April at least four people were killed in a car bomb attack.