by Our Foreign Desk

ISLAMIC STATE (Isis) has claimed responsibility for a lorry bomb that killed 67 people in a food market in the Iraqi capital Baghdad yesterday.

The bomb, which had been planted in a parked refrigerator lorry, exploded shortly after dawn in the Jameela market in the Sadr City district — a stronghold of the Shi’ite Mahdi Army militia fighting the extremist group.

The blast incinerated much of the market, leaving charred wooden market stalls and scattering fruit and vegetables far around it.

Police said that at least 152 people had been wounded at the market, which is Baghdad’s main centre for produce and food sales.

“On Thursdays the market is very crowded because people come from the other provinces to stock up on food for the weekend,” one officer said.

Minibus driver Hassan Hamid said that his vehicle was thrown 10 metres onto a pavement by the blast.

“This is the strongest explosion I’ve ever seen in my life,” said the father of three, speaking from hospital where he was being treated for shrapnel injuries.

“I saw some cars were thrown into the sky and a fire erupted all over the place.”

An Isis statement claimed that the attack was in retaliation for the military offensive against the group in north-eastern Iraq, where it controls large areas.

It said that the bomb was detonated so that “rejectionists (Shi’ites) experience the same harm as their bombardments cause to our Muslim people.”

UN acting mission chief in Iraq Gyorgy Busztin called the attack “heinous and cowardly,” while the Iraqi parliament’s security committee denounced the bombing, saying it showed “the ugliness and brutality” of the attackers.

Committee chairman and MP Hakim al-Zamili, once a leading member of Mahdi Army leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s now-disbanded political party, reiterated demands for a security review and for improving the country’s intelligence services.

Mr Zamili also urged the formation of neighbourhood groups to keep Iraqi forces updated on the local situation.