Death toll from Baghdad bombing rises to 250

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By BNO NEWS

The death toll from Sunday’s truck bombing in a busy shopping street in central Baghdad has risen to at least 250, the country’s health minister says, making it Iraq’s deadliest single car bombing since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

In a statement issued on late Tuesday evening, Health Minister Adila Hammoud said the death toll had risen to at least 250 while more than 200 others were injured, though only 23 of them remained in hospital by Tuesday night. There was no word on their conditions.

The new death toll makes Sunday’s attack the deadliest single car bombing since U.S.-led forces toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein more than 13 years ago. The only deadlier attack since 2003 happened in August 2007, when a series of suicide bombings killed more than 500 people in Yazidi communities.

Sunday’s attack happened just after midnight local time when a massive explosion tore through a crowded commercial area in Karrada district. It happened as many hundreds of people went to shop ahead of the holiday marking the end of the Ramadan.

In a statement sent out several hours after the blast, the Islamic State group (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, making it the group’s deadliest bomb attack since it declared itself an Islamic caliphate in June 2014.

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