Double bomb attacks strike Baghdad markets

One of the two attacks struck close to the entrance of a marketplace near Tayran Square. Two suicide bomb attacks in the central commercial district of Bab al-Sharji killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others. The second blast also wounded 12 people.

The bombers hit Wathba and Haraj markets during morning rush-hour, killing police and civilians. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to reporters.

Iraq is going through its worst crisis since U.S. troops withdrew from the area in 2011. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the authenticity of the statement, but its language and phrasing is consistent with past IS claims of responsibility. But 2013 began a particularly violent pattern with deaths more than doubling that year, and then nearly doubling again to about 16,000 last year as Islamic State militants seized control of large areas in western and northern Iraq.

IS has carried out numerous suicide bombings and other attacks against civilian and government targets in and around Baghdad.

Eleven people were killed and 23 injured on Tuesday in separate attacks in Iraq’s violence-plagued Baghdad and Diyala provinces, according to local security sources.