ISIS claimed responsibility Friday for bombings outside two heavily fortified five-star hotels in the Iraqi capital that killed 15 people.
In a statement, ISIS said a suicide bomber called Abu Qutaiba had parked a car outside the Ishtar hotel in central Baghdad late on Thursday before driving another vehicle laden with 230 kg of explosives to the nearby Babylon hotel.
The bomber detonated himself and the vehicle he was driving there around the same time the first car bomb exploded, "killing and wounding dozens of infidels", according to the statement.
Iraqi authorities lifted a decade-old night-time curfew on Baghdad early this year, seeking to restore a sense of normality to the capital as security forces battle ISIS insurgents who have overrun large parts of the country.
But the rate of bombings in Baghdad has increased since then.
Militants seized Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital west of Baghdad, on May 17 in the most significant military setback to the government since a U.S.-led coalition launched a campaign of air strikes against Islamic State last August.
The blast at the Ishtar - formerly a Sheraton - shattered windows of the recently renovated hotel, turning rows of expensive cars and SUVs into charred, twisted metal.
People traipsed through the site of the blast, while a group of men struggled to remove the smashed windshield from an SUV on the other side of the hotel.
The Ishtar is a popular site for wedding celebrations, and the area - which also includes a club and the Palestine hotel - is crowded with people Thursday nights.
A second bombing struck the car park at the Babylon, another upmarket and recently refurbished hotel that overlooks the Tigris river in the Jadriya neighbourhood.
Police said security forces found another car bomb in the Babylon's car park and defused it.
The Babylon and Sheraton were hit in coordinated attacks in January 2010, together with the Hamra, which never reopened.
The attacks five years ago were carried out by suicide bombers and killed at least 36 people. They were claimed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group that later became ISIS.
AFP
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