A car bomb attack at a popular market south of Baquba, Diyala province, eastern Iraq, has killed at least 100 people and injured 140 others, according to the latest official toll released Saturday.
The bomb exploded at a market in the Khan Bani Saad district, a predominantly Shiite town 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Baghdad.
"The toll so far is 90 martyrs and 120 wounded, and we have between 17 and 20 missing," Abbas Hadi Saleh, top official of the area, had told AFP earlier Saturday at the scene. He said 15 children were killed in the attack, which ripped through the heart of the town's market area as people were shopping on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan. "Every year (during Ramadan) there's a bombing. We are guilty of being Shiite," Saleh said. "This is the biggest in Diyala since 2003."
The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS claimed that Friday's suicide bomber had three tons of explosives in his vehicle. The death toll is one of the highest since the jihadists launched their nationwide offensive in June 2014. An AFP correspondent said the blast caused massive destruction and left a crater in the street that is five meters wide and two deep (16 feet wide and more than six deep).
In summer 2014, ISIS partially captured Diyala, however, Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces managed to liberate the province in January. In recent weeks, suicide attacks and bomb explosions are on the rise, partly due to the refusal of two prominent Sunni tribes in the area, the Oal-Waisi and al-Jabour, to fight alongside ISIS.
Earlier in the week at least 21 people were killed in a series of explosions in Baghdad for which ISIS claimed responsibility.
