The death toll from a suicide bombing in Baghdad this weekend has reached 292, Iraq's health ministry said on Thursday.
The attack, claimed by the militant group Islamic State, which government forces are trying to eject from large parts of the north and west of the country, was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.
More than 200 people were wounded in the attack in a busy shopping street in the mainly Shi’ite Karrada district of central Baghdad.
About 23 of the wounded were still in hospital, health ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Rudaini said.
Earlier on Thursday, the ministry had put the toll at 281 and it rose as more people, registered as missing, were identified as dead, Mr Rudaini said.
The bombings demonstrated the extremists’ ability to mount significant attacks despite major battlefield losses, including the city of Fallujah, which was declared “fully liberated” from Isis just over a week ago.
The deadliest attack took place in the central Karada district of Baghdad on Sunday, where a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laded pickup truck outside a crowded shopping centre.
The suicide bomber struck shortly after midnight, when families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan.
Most of the victims were inside a multi-storey shopping and amusement centre, where dozens burned to death or suffocated, officials said.
Reuters