ISIS Claims Responsibility for Baghdad Mall Attack That Killed At Least 18 People

It was the largest attack to hit the city in months.

AP

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ISIS has claimed responsibility for a major attack at a shopping mall in Baghdad on Monday that killed at least 18 people.

According to Reuters, ISIS said the attack at the Jawhara mall was specifically intended to kill Shiite Muslims. The mall is in a neighborhood called Baghdad al-Jadida that is home to mostly Shiites. The attack began with a car bomb blast at the entrance to the mall, then continued as several fighters shot their way into the mall and two of them detonated suicide vests. The attack, when combined with three other blasts that took place on Monday in other areas of Baghdad, was the largest to hit the city in months. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the other attacks.

While bombings aren’t rare in Iraq, Monday’s attack was unusually complex and potentially an ISIS attempt at revenge for the Iraqi Army’s recent battlefield successes. “The enemy is using new tactics because of our recent victories [against them] in Ramadi and other areas,” Lieutenant General Abdulameer al-Shimmari, the head of the Baghdad Operations Command, told the Washington Post.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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