Toll soars to 90 after ISIL bomb guts Iraq town

Rescuers in the Iraqi town of Khan Bani Saad search collapsed buildings for bodies after a huge car bomb ripped through a busy market, killing at least 90 people Rescuers in the Iraqi town of Khan Bani Saad were searching collapsed buildings for bodies July 18 after a huge car bomb ripped through a busy market, killing at least 90 people.

The suicide attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group was one of the deadliest since it took over swathes of Iraq last year and came as the country marked Eid al-Fitr, the feast that ends the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Residents recounted scenes of horror in the aftermath of the July 17 attack, in which officials said at least 15 children died.    

Muthanna Saadoun, a municipal employee who drives a street sweeper, used his truck to help put out the fires that the blast caused in the market area.

"People were burning in their cars because no ambulances or fire engines were able to reach them," the 25-year-old said.

ISIL said the suicide attacker had three tons of explosives in his vehicle. The crater the explosion left in the main street of the town's central Al-Khan neighborhood was about five meters wide and two meters deep.

Cuts of charred meat were still hanging from the hooks of one butcher's stall that was ravaged by flames. Several collapsed buildings were still smoldering 12 hours after the attack.

A child's toy elephant lay in the middle of the street as a defense ministry bulldozer shoveled the debris and cleaners swept blood-stained water.

"What we witnessed yesterday cannot be described. Fire, bodies, wounded, women and children screaming... Al-Khan is now a disaster zone," said Salem Abu Moqtada, 34,...