Iraq’s interior minister has resigned just days after a suicide bomber carried out the deadliest attack in Baghdad in 13 years.
Mohammed al-Ghabban made his announcement at a news conference in the Iraqi capital, which was later posted on his Facebook page. His resignation becomes official only if Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi approves it.
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At least 200 people were killed Sunday when a bomb exploded at a crowded marketplace in Karada, a predominately Shiite neighborhood in central Baghdad. Roughly 175 more people were wounded, Mohamed al-Rubaye‎, deputy head of the security committee of the Baghdad Provincial Council said Monday on Afaq TV.
The Islamic State has since claimed responsibility for the attack, the worst single car bomb attack in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was removed by U.S. forces in 2003. The group said it would carry out terror attacks during Ramadan, which ended Tuesday night.
According to Al Jazeera, Ghabban told reporters Tuesday that the Iraqi government “has failed in having the different array of security forces work under a unified plan in Baghdad.”
He then called on the government to give the Interior Ministry security control inside Iraq’s cities. The Interior Ministry only oversees policing and border control in Iraq.
According to CNN, 81 of the bodies recovered in Sunday’s attack will only be positively identified after DNA testing.
The attack has left Iraqis furious with their government, as officials in Baghdad have been claiming that after the Islamic State-stronghold of Fallujah fell, car bombs and suicide bombers would become less widespread.
Prime Minister al-Abadi arrived to the scene of the blast Sunday morning, but had to leave after being pelted with stones and other items and yelled at by protestors upset at the government. Since then, no other Iraqi government officials have been near the Karada neighborhood.
