A bomb blast in a crowded vegetable market in Baghdad killed at least 36 people and wounded 75 others Thursday, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.
The bomb was packed in a truck that detonated in the Souk Jameela neighborhood in the eastern part of the capital.
A statement circulated online by ISIS supporters claimed responsibility for the blast in what they described as a “blessed operation” targeting Shiite militia and members of the Popular Mobilization Units in one of their strongholds in Baghdad’s Sadr City area.
The Popular Mobilization Units — predominantly Shiite militias allied with the government — have been deployed alongside Iraqi forces to try to push back against ISIS, which consists of Sunni Muslim extremists.
Such attacks with large death tolls occur with sad regularity in and around Baghdad.
Earlier this week, a suicide car bomb killed 61 people in the city of Baquba, 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Baghdad. ISIS, which has targeted areas not far from the Iraqi capital, claimed responsibility for the Baquba bombing. That blast hit a mostly ethnic Shiite area.
ISIS has also struck Shiite areas closer to Baghdad. Last month, a truck laden with explosives killed at least 120 people in an outdoor market in Khan Bani Saad, a town some 32 kilometers (20 miles) north of Baghdad.