Baghdad bombing: Naming some of the victims

Over 140 men, women and children were killed by an Islamic State suicide car bomb attack on Baghdad's busy Karrada district on Sunday. These are some of their names.
2 min read
04 July, 2016
Many of the victims were young people who worked in the area [Twitter]

Nearly 24 hours after an Islamic State suicide car bomb ripped through a busy shopping street in the heart of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, scores of people remain unaccounted for, with families frantically trying to determine the fate of their loves ones.

The attack that hit Baghdad's Karrada district early on Sunday morning has already killed over 140 people and wounded close to 200 others.

Many of those killed were young people working at the shopping centres set ablaze by the massive explosion and families shopping for Eid, the Muslim festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

By Sunday afternoon, the tragic stories of the innocent victims started emerging on social media and in the Iraqi press.

They tell a tale of residents of a city ravaged by terrorist violence for 13 years, who were nonetheless determined to carve out a normal life for themselves and their families.

These are some of their names and stories.

Akram and Mohammad, are two young brothers who ran a shop in Karrada. They were killed in the explosion. When the family informed their mother, she went into shock and died.

An eyewitness told the local Houna Baghdad TV that a group of primary school children had been at one of the shopping centres celebrating the end of school and the completion of the third grade. They had bought a cake. They remain missing.

Adnan Safaa Abo-Altman was a young man who on Thursday graduated from law school.

His proud father, Safaa, had posted a collage of Adnan's childhood pictures interspersed with him in a sharp suit during the graduation on his Facebook page.

The father is reportedly dead, while his other son, Ali, remains missing.

Iraqi football star Ghanem Oraybi, who played with the national team in the 1986 Mexico World Cup, was also in the vicinity of the bombing along with his teenage son, Dhulfiqar, who was killed.

Another victim was Dr. Mustafa Hameed, who earned his PhD in microbiology last year.

Social media users also shared several pictures of entire families who were killed in the brutal attack.

The attack is the deadliest bombing to hit the Iraqi capital this year. Numerous other victims will no doubt be identified over the coming days.