Iraq PM Announces Three Days of Mourning for Victims of Baghdad Bombing

The blast hit the Karrada district early Sunday as the area was packed with shoppers ahead of this week's holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced three days of national mourning for the victims as he visited the site of the attack, and his office said he had vowed to "punish" the perpetrators.

He also ordered changes to Baghdad security measures in response to the bombing, which security officials said killed at least 130 people and wounded more than 200.

The attack came a week after Iraqi security forces recaptured Fallujah from the Daesh group, leaving Mosul as the only Iraqi city under the terrorist group's control.

The blast set buildings ablaze, and crowds of people watched from the rubble-filled street as emergency personnel carried out victims and worked on the site.

A member of the civil defense forces said it would take "a number of days" to recover the bodies of the victims.

Hussein Ali, a 24-year-old former soldier, said six workers at his family's shop were killed, their bodies so badly burned they could not be identified.

"I will return to the battlefront. At least there, I know the enemy so I can fight him. But here, I don't know who I'm fighting," Ali told AFP.

Daesh issued a statement claiming responsibility for the suicide bombing, saying it was carried out by an Iraqi as part of "ongoing security operations".

Bombings in the capital have decreased since the Daesh group overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in June 2014, with the terrorists apparently more concerned with operations elsewhere.

But the group has struck back against Iraqi civilians after suffering military setbacks, and in May, Baghdad was rocked by a series of blasts that killed more than 150 people in seven days.

A video posted on social media showed men – apparently angry at the government's failure to prevent the carnage in Karrada – throwing rocks at what was said to be Abadi's convoy.

But the premier struck a conciliatory tone over anger directed towards him.

"I understand the emotional feelings and actions that occurred in a moment of sadness and anger," Abadi said in a statement.

With thousands of vehicles moving in and out of the city each day, such bombings are difficult to prevent.

But there are also flaws in security measures in the city, especially the continued use of fake bomb detectors at checkpoints years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.

Abadi announced a series of changes to security measures following the Sunday bombing, including scrapping the fake detectors.

He also ordered the deployment of scanning devices at entrances to Baghdad to be sped up, directed that security personnel be banned from using mobile phones at checkpoints, and also called for increased aerial reconnaissance and coordination among security forces.

Iraqi forces completely recaptured Fallujah, a city 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, from the terrorists a week ago.

Anti-government fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014 and it later became one of the Daesh group's main strongholds in the country.

With Fallujah retaken, Iraqi forces are now setting their sights on second city Mosul, the last major population centre held by the Daesh group in Iraq.