Suicide bombings kill at least 80 people across Baghdad

Three suicide bombings claimed by DAESH terrorists across Baghdad killed at least 80 people on Wednesday, Iraqi police and hospital sources said, in the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital this year.

The first attack, a suicide car bomb at a bustling market in the Shiite Muslim area of Sadr City, killed 55 people during morning rush hour and wounded 68.

Two more blasts struck at the end of the working day. A suicide bomber stormed a security checkpoint leading into Kadhimiya, a northwestern area housing one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, killing 17 and wounding more than 30.

Another bomb went off at a checkpoint on a commercial thoroughfare in a predominantly Sunni district of western Baghdad, killing eight and wounding 20.

DAESH said in statements circulated online by supporters that a car bomb had aimed at Shiite militia fighters gathered in the area and two fighters wearing explosive vests targeted security forces in the later attacks.

DAESH, claimed a twin suicide bombing in Sadr City in February that killed 70 people.

The fight against DAESH has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq.

Sectarian violence also threatens to undermine efforts to dislodge the group from vast areas of the north and west of Iraq that they seized in 2014.