The death toll from a truck suicide bombing in Baghdad over the weekend has reached 250, Iraq's health ministry said on Tuesday. Most of the victims were inside a multi-storey shopping mall, where dozens burned to death or suffocated, officials said. The attack took place in the central Karada district of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laded pickup truck outside a crowded shopping centre. The suicide bomber struck shortly after midnight, when families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan. Islamic State militants, who the government is battling in the country's north and west, claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the many car bombings in Baghdad since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Source: CBC News July 05, 2016 22:30 UTC