Islamic State claims responsibility for largest blast, in Sadr City, as two other Shia neighbourhoods also targeted

A string of car bomb attacks across Baghdad has killed at least 90 people, making it the Iraqi capital’s deadliest day this year.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the largest blast, at a marketplace in the Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City, which killed at least 63 people.

Two other blasts targeted the Shia neighbourhoods of Kadhimiya, in the north of the city, the site of one of the main Shia Islamic shrines, and Hurriya.



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Despite the resurgence of Isis in areas outside the capital, the frequency of attacks in Baghdad has slowed over the past year. But Isis continues to demonstrate that it can still launch coordinated campaigns in sensitive areas of the city despite a massive security presence.



Iraqi officials have yet to come up with a way to stop car bombs from being driven around the city and detonated in areas that have frequently been targeted. Sadr City, a sprawling former slum area which is home to more than 1 million Shia residents, is one such area.

In recent years Sadr City has been targeted at least 110 times, according to Iraqi officials. In almost all cases the bombs were driven into the neighbourhood past an extensive system of checkpoints.

Iraqi police and soldiers continue to use British-made fake bomb detector wands at many checkpoints across the country. The company that made them, ATSC, was dissolved in 2013, and its founder, Jim McCormick, was convicted of three counts of fraud and sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Iraqi interior ministry and military officials spent an estimated £52m on the devices. Officials still insist they work.

Isis has been pushed back from areas to the south and north of Baghdad, which are now dominated by Shia militias, who work alongside the Iraqi military and often have primacy over them. Isis is also on the back foot west of Baghdad, which had been a hotbed of Sunni militancy for more than a decade.

The terror group has repeatedly pledged to continue to target civilians across Iraq, especially members of the Shia sect. It has said it draws no distinction between them and security forces.

Iraq’s government believes the group retains an organised presence in Baghdad, with a network of sleeper cells that recruit and train suicide bombers such as the militant who targeted Sadr City in the latest strike. Officials believe the suicide devices and car bombs are assembled inside the city.

The Guardian has spoken with captured Isis members who have previously been responsible for explosions in some of the areas targeted on Wednesday. One of the men, Abu Abdullah, who was formerly second in charge of the group inside Baghdad, said he had personally sent 15 suicide bombers on missions between 2011 and 2013, and had no regrets about his actions.