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15 December 2025

Nine killed in central Baghdad market bombing

Children walk through the site of a bombing in the main Shiite district in Baghdad, Iraq. A bomb ripped through a crowded market, killing and wounding scores less than a week before a deadline for US combat troops to leave Iraq's urban areas. (AP)

Published
By AFP
At least nine people were killed and 25 wounded in a bombing at a market selling motorcycles in central Baghdad on Friday, Iraqi security officials told AFP.

"A motorcycle exploded in the centre of a motorcycle market in Nahdha district around 9 am (0600 GMT), killing nine people and wounding 25," a security official said.

Defence and interior ministry officials confirmed the toll.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki moved to reassure Iraqis on Thursday that his security forces were able to protect the population after a massive bomb killed dozens days before a major pullback of US forces.

Wednesday's attack in a market in the overwhelmingly Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad was one of the deadliest this year, killing at least 62 people and wounding about 150.

"We assure you of Iraqi forces' readiness for the mission, despite some security violations, and we assure you that we are now more stable and steady," Maliki said.

He appealed to Iraqis to inform the army and police of any potential attacks, to ensure that the country did not return to the sectarian violence that blighted it throughout 2006 and 2007.

The flare-up of attacks across Iraq was part of "a plan that aims to awaken sectarianism, create chaos, abort the political process and prevent Iraqi people from standing on their own feet," he said.

The White House has insisted that President Barack Obama is not reconsidering his decision to withdraw American troops from Iraq's urban areas.

 

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