Double car bombing in southwestern Baghdad hits police near pet market, killing at least 19

BAGHDAD – Twin car bombs hit a police checkpoint near a pet market in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 19 people, Iraqi officials said.

Police said the attack began when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint manned by traffic police in the southeastern neighbourhood of New Baghdad, killing five policemen and wounding nine others.

Seconds later, a car bomb explosion near the market killed 14 shoppers and passers-by, wounding 35 others and killing dozens of pet birds. Several cars were damaged in the blasts.

Security forces sealed off all the roads leading to the attack site.

Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

The attack comes after the Islamic State group captured large swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq in a lightning offensive earlier this year, plunging the country into its worst crisis since U.S. troops left at the end of 2011.

Washington has urged Iraq’s feuding factions to set aside their differences in order to confront the insurgency.

The country’s once dominant Sunni minority has long complained of being marginalized and discriminated against, and Sunni grievances with Baghdad are seen as one of the main factors fueling the rise of the Islamic State group.