8 killed, gunmen take hostages in Baghdad mall

Gunmen blew going on a car bomb, sprayed gunfire in a crowded place and took hostages in a shopping mall in eastern Baghdad Monday, killing at least eight people, police said.

The gunmen were yet holed taking place in the shopping centre in Baghdad al-Jadida, a police colonel said, calculation that it was feared the attackers were wearing suicide belts.

A hospital attributed stated the death toll and said 14 people were moreover reported to have been frantic in the injury.

"They are inside the Zahrat Baghdad mall. When the security forces got too heavy, they killed three hostages," a police attributed said.

"We are taking a careful pretension in now. We romantic this belligerence to decrease as soon as the lowest doable number of casualties," the proprietor said.

He described the mall as a building of four or five floors in a breathing classified ad place of Baghdad al-Jadida, a populous Shiite-majority place behind suggestion to the eastern edge of the Iraqi capital.

A large plume of black smoke could be seen billowing into the atmosphere above the area where the mall is located.

An interior ministry source said an everyday number of gunmen opened ember in the street after a car bomb exploded and briefly clashed considering members of the security forces in the to the front entering the mall.

"They very run the mall right now, they have men going almost for the roof," the qualified said.

Police said a counter-terrorism force from the prudence facilities was upon the scene and snipers posted upon buildings re the mall.

There was no unexpected allegation of answerability for the assault but a police source described the gunmen as "wearing Daesh-style clothes".

Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State jihadist group that occupies parts of the country and is answerable for the colossal majority of suicide attacks in Baghdad.

The organization has carried out dozens of suicide car bomb attacks but Monday's hostage-taking would be the first of its easy to use back IS seized control of large parts of Iraq in 2014.