Twin blasts rip through Baghdad killing 27

People inspect the scene of twin suicide attacks at a bazaar in Baghdad, Iraq on 31 December 2016 [Anadolu Agency]

People inspect the scene of twin suicide attacks in Iraq on December 31 2016 [Anadolu]

Two bombs exploded at a busy market in central Baghdad today, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 50, police and medics said.

Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a string of bombings it has carried out in the Iraqi capital.

Police said the blasts went off near car parts shops in the Al-Sinak neighbourhood during the morning rush. One of them was triggered by a suicide bomber, the other was a planted explosive, an Interior Ministry official told Reuters.

In signs that even officials were unclear as to what happened, Brigadier General Sa’ad Ma’an, the spokesman for the Baghdad operations centre, said that the blasts were caused by two suicide bombers.

Civilians picked through the debris of the explosions including a food cart torn apart by the blast as medics carried off the casualties.

Daesh has lost much of the northern and western territory it seized in 2014 and is now resisting an Iraqi offensive on the northern city of Mosul, the ultra-hardline group’s last major stronghold in the country.

Iraqi forces faced fierce resistance from the militants in southern Mosul yesterday, while troops in the city’s east and north said that they had cleared areas they had recaptured a day earlier.