At least 10 people were killed and 22 were injured when insurgents attacked a shopping mall in Baghdad Monday with hand grenades and at least two nearby bombs, police told NBC News.
Iraqi security forces opened fire on the insurgents, who initially tried to take a money exchange office in Baghdad Al-Jadeedah before entering the Al Jawhara shopping mall, a major in the Baghdad Police Department and a master sergeant in the Iraqi Federal Police Division said.
Police said the attackers were throwing hand grenades at civilians inside the mall and held them hostage there. At least 10 civilians were killed and another 22 injured, according to police.
All six assailants were left dead by the end of the standoff, police said. The Iraqi government said four of the attackers were killed by Iraqi officers, while two blew themselves up.
Shiite militia were deployed to the crowded district, and the minister of interior and commander of Baghdad operation command traveled to the area, the major said. The area was blocked from all directions, the major added.
Also on Monday evening, a car bomb in southeast Baghdad in a crowded market area killed five and wounded 12, hospital and police officials told The Associated Press.
ISIS appears to have claimed responsibility for the mall attack, according to a statement published by the terror group online, said Laith Alkhouri, with Flashpoint Intelligence, a global security firm and NBC News consultant.
The statement claimed that the targeted individuals were from the Shi’ite militias known as Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi. A bloody past and centuries of mistrust between the two branches of Islam are threatening to derail Iraq’s bid to crush the hard-line Sunni ISIS militants. —NBC News’ Elisha Fieldstadt contributed to this article. This article first appeared on NBCNews.com.
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