The UN envoy for Iraq, Jan Kubis, described the Karrada attack as “a cowardly and heinous act of unparalleled proportions”. Like an earthquake“It was like an earthquake,” said Karim Sami, a 35-year-old street vendor. The security can’t focus on the war [against IS] and forget Baghdad,” Sami, the street vendor, said. The Baghdad bombings demonstrated the extremists’ ability to mount significant attacks despite major battlefield losses, including the city of Fallujah, which was declared “fully liberated” from IS just over a week ago. IS still controls Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul as well as significant patches of territory in north and west.

Source: The Hindu July 03, 2016 21:22 UTC