Daesh on Friday claimed responsibility for suicide car bombs outside two upscale hotels in Baghdad that left 15 people dead, AFP reported.
In a statement, the militant group named Abu Qutaiba as the suicide bomber who parked a bomb-laden car outside central Baghdad’s Ishtar hotel late Thursday before driving another car filled with explosives into the close-by Babylon hotel.
The bomber detonated himself and the vehicle he was operating as the first car bomb exploded, according to the Daesh statement.
Police officials told AFP that security forces were able to locate and diffuse a third car bomb in the Babylon hotel’s parking lot.
The Ishtar hotel is a popular location for weddings and other celebrations and is often packed with people on Thursday nights.
Both hotels were targeted in attacks in early 2010 along with a third hotel that never reopened.
Iraqi authorities lifted a longtime night curfew on Baghdad earlier this year in a move meant to restore a sense of normalcy to life in the capital city.
However, bombings in Baghdad have increased since then as Iraqi forces struggle to hold off Daesh militants in the surrounding provinces.
