Two suicide bombers, one in an explosives-laden car and the other on foot, hit a cluster of funeral tents packed with mourning families in Sadr City in north-eastern Baghdad that killed at least 92 people on Saturday.
Police said at least 72 people were killed and more than 120 were wounded in that attack. One bomber was able to drive up near the tent before detonating his deadly payload, and another on foot blew himself up nearby, police said.
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The explosions set the tents and several nearby cars on fire, sending a towering plume of thick black smoke over the city.
“I saw several charred bodies on the ground and tents on fire and also burning cars. Wounded people were screaming in pain,” said Sheik Sattar al-Fartousi, one of the mourners. “The scene was horrible. The funeral turned into an inferno.”
Civilian pickup trucks loaded with casualties and ambulances with sirens blaring were seen racing from the scene.
Less than two hours after the funeral attack, another car bomb blast struck a commercial street in the nearby Ur neighbourhood, killing nine people and wounding 14, according to police.
Earlier in the day, insurgents launched a suicide attack on a police commando headquarters in the city of Beiji. Guards managed to kill one suicide bomber, but the three others were able to set off their explosive belts inside the compound, killing seven policemen and wounding 21 others, police said.
In other violence, gunmen shot and killed two prison guards after storming their houses in a village near the restive city of Mosul. Two soldiers were killed and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their convoy in Mosul.