Syria/Iraq update 4/16/2021..Lebanon-Syria smuggling and sanctions, the new front line

Lebanon-Syria: Smuggling and sanctions, the new front line

Wounded in Sadr City bombing attack recall moment of blast

Wounded were admitted to the Martyr Al-Sadr General Hospital, east Baghdad, on Thursday, following an explosion that targeted a popular market in Sadr City earlier the same day. Footage from inside the hospital showed a number of wounded, who were receiving treatment for injuries sustained in the blast, according to hospital staff.

 ”We are young men, I am 21 years old, what did the state give us? Why they come to prevent us from selling on the street? We are poor and we work in the street, I do not have a degree. I only studied until the first grade of elementary school, so what did the state offer us to come to prevent us from working? Where to go? We are young and cannot marry,” said one of the wounded, Abbas Kamil Al-Ad. 

For his part, another injured person, Ali Dirar Silwan, said: “I saw people fall (after the bombing). This is what I saw, and I did not see anything else. My foot was injured, and praise be to God for every case. What I saw were large numbers of injured people, but I do not know the exact number, because I lost consciousness and no longer realised what was going on around me.” 

Security sources cited in the media say that at least one person was killed and 12 injured in the explosion, which was caused by the detonation of an explosive device placed inside a car. Other reports put the death toll as high as four. 

So far, no party has claimed responsibility for the attack.