UK Edition
Baghdad ice cream parlour reopens days after bombing
A Baghdad ice cream parlour bombed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has re-opened just five days after it was attacked.
Al-Faqma, situated in the city’s southern Karrada neighbourhood, was hit by a car bomb as families broke their Ramadan fast on May 30, killing at least 16.
In a message posted to their Facebook on Saturday night, the parlour announced that they had re-opened for business. “We have been working through the night and the day to reopen the shop and to defy terrorism,” the message read.
“Life has to continue, we have to face terrorism, and work must continue.”
Pictures showed families and young people sharing ice cream on benches outside the shop – a place that just days before had been littered with dead bodies, and consumed by fire.
One of the dead in the attack was a 12-year old girl from Melbourne, in Australia, who had been visiting her family in Baghdad. She was named as Zynab al-Harbiya.
Isil claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it had targeted “gatherings of Shia” in Karrada. It is not the first time that the organisation has targeted civilians in the area during Ramadan because of their faith. On 3 July 2016, a suicide bomber killed over 300 after detonating a van full of explosives on the main street.
The owners of the parlour finished their Facebook post by saying that they had distributed free ice cream in memory of the dead. “God willing, the injured will be healthy soon.”