#Karrada_Explosion

At least 147 people were killed in a suicide bomb explosion in the busy shopping district of Karrada in central Baghdad in the early hours of Sunday morning. In a statement published online, Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack. Bombings are an almost daily occurrence in the Iraqi capital but this was the deadliest this year. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi visited the blast site and said that Daesh had carried out the bombing “after being crushed in the battle of Fallujah”. However, he ended up being heckled and stoned by a furious crowd and was forced to leave. On Twitter, the Arabic hashtag #Karrada_explosion was used over 100,000 times by social media users in less than 24 hours. The English language hashtag #PrayForIraq was used over 33,000 times.

Seba tweeted:

“On Eid, they’re preparing mourning tents and getting ready for funerals. This is the state of Iraqis in the last days of Ramadan, greeting Eid with their martyrs. To God we belong and to Him is our return.”

Zainab tweeted:

“Don’t we have the right to live in peace? Is it written that we die without knowing why we’re being killed? Does death and destruction only come to our land?”

Yusir Hf tweeted:

“I am from a country where half the people are martyrs and the other half are waiting to die… until when??”

Ever since the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraq’s sectarian divisions have exacerbated, and some pro-Daesh Twitter users expressed approval of the attacks.

One Twitter user calling himself “Tweeter from Mosul” wrote:

“Don’t be surprised if you see people justifying these explosions. That’s ordinary. Iraq’s curse will be on any dishonourable person who took part in its destruction, even with a tweet.”

Rose Ibrahim tweeted a horrifying picture of the burned body of an infant with the words:

“What will you say when this child complains about you to God?! Will you say he is a Shia infidel or a Christian infidel or a Yazidi?”

Some Twitter users blamed neighbouring Saudi Arabia for the attack. Venus Azall wrote:

“As usual most of those who celebrate and gloat on Daesh’s explosions are Saudis… what a coincidence.”

Others looked closer to home. Waleed tweeted:

“The political, security and religious establishments in Iraq are to blame for the deaths in Karrada. Those who see the videos [of the explosion] feel true despair.”

Some Twitter users reacted angrily to what they saw as the media’s double standards in the coverage of the violence in Iraq. Sedawy tweeted:

“If Paris deserves a minute of silence then Iraq deserves that the world should be silent forever.”

A Twitter user calling herself Baghdadiya wrote: “No one cares about my country”, along with the following picture: