On 3 July 2016, coordinated bomb attacks were carried out in Baghdad, resulting in mass civilian casualties. A few minutes after midnight local time (2 July, 21:00 UTC), a suicide car bombing in the district of Karrada killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds more. The mainly Shia area was busy with late night shoppers because it was Ramadan. A second roadside bomb was detonated in the suburb of Sha'ab, killing at least five.

The Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, naming the Karrada bomber as Abu Maha al-Iraqi. According to the BBC, there were reports that the source of the blast was a refrigerator van packed with explosives. The explosion caused a huge fire on the main street. Several buildings, including the popular al-Hadi Centre, were badly damaged. It is believed to be the deadliest single bomb attack in Iraq since 2007.

The suicide truck bomb hit a shopping area in Karrada, where many people were on the street during the evening in order to shop and to break their Ramadan fast with iftar at local cafes. A suicide bombing, the bomb was concealed within a refrigerator truck. It was the first major assault on Baghdad following the Iraqi government's recapture of Fallujah from Islamic State in June 2016. This bombing killed at least 213 people and injured over 200.Unconfirmed reports state that the car bombs may have passed checkpoints where Iraqi security forces still use fake bomb detectors such as the ADE 651.

A second roadside explosion occurred in the largely Shia suburb of Sha'ab in northern Baghdad around midnight, killing at least five people and injuring 16.

A third bombing that targeted members of al-Hashd al-Shaabi killed one person and injured five. The bomb was an IED and took place in Abu Gharib district in Baghdad. A vehicle was also damaged.

A fourth bombing in al-Latifiya in southern Baghdad was a car bombing that killed one person and injured an unknown number of people. The bomb was placed under a civilian vehicle, and went off when the vehicle was being driven.

So far, the casualties from the four bombings during the day in Baghdad include over 220 people killed and over 225 people injured.

On the aftermath of the attack, Baghdad Operations Command claimed that it had arrested members of a militant cell who were connected to the bombing.

The Iraqi Ministry of Defence revealed that at least 167 had been killed and over 180 injured, with those numbers expected to rise. Reports from the scene indicated that many of those killed were children. After initial reports, the death toll continued to rise as further corpses were recovered from the rubble and injured victims died of their injuries. It is the deadliest attack in Iraqthus far in 2016.

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