ISIS bombings highlight Iraqi capital’s vulnerability

A wave of Islamic State bombings in Baghdad has killed nearly 100 people in two days, exposing lingering gaps in the capital’s defenses, which are manned by an array of security agencies and militias that don’t always cooperate.

The attacks also point to the resilience of the extremist group, which has increasingly resorted to bombings in civilian areas far from the front-lines as it has lost territory to Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes.

Three attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday left more than 90 people dead and 165 wounded. The deadliest struck a crowded market selling food, clothing and household goods in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. The second deadliest attack in Baghdad this year was also in Sadr City, where bombings in late February killed 73 people.

On Thursday, two suicide bombers hit a police station in Baghdad’s westernmost suburb of Abu Ghraib, killing five policemen and wounding 12.

Bombings have been a fixture of life in the Iraqi capital since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, with the attacks reaching their peak during the sectarian fighting of 2006 and 2007, when dozens of civilians were killed nearly every day.

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