NPR News:巴格达市遭爆炸袭击致百余人遇难 ISIS宣称负责

The White House has issued a statement condemning the bombings in Baghdad that took place in the early hours of the morning. The attacks have claimed at least 109 lives. The death toll figure comes from Iraq's Ministry of Interior and is expected to rise. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in an online statement. NPR's Alice Fordham is following this story from Beirut, Lebanon. She joins me now. Alice, what more can you tell us about what happened? This attack struck people who were out celebrating Ramadan, right?
白宫发表声明谴责凌晨发生在巴格达的爆炸袭击。袭击造成至少109人死亡。这是伊拉克内政部公布的死亡人数，估计死亡人数还会上升。ISIS在网上发表声明宣布为袭击负责。NPR新闻的爱丽丝·福德汉姆正在黎巴嫩贝鲁特追踪报道这一事件。她将和我们连线。爱丽丝，有关这起袭击，你目前了解到什么最新情况？据我所知，遇袭的是外出庆祝斋月的人们，对吧？

ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE: Yeah, exactly. This is a neighborhood of Baghdad I've been to many times. And the thing to understand about this time of year is, of course, it's very hot in Iraq and it's Ramadan. So people are mainly fasting, sleeping during the day. And they go out at night. Even though this struck in the early hours of the morning, it's likely that this neighborhood was packed with people in sidewalk cafes watching the European soccer matches, doing their shopping for Eid next week, when it's traditional to buy clothes for each other.
And the images of the attack were just of a street that was in a conflagration. You know, whole shops burned, a mini-bus just burned out, just destruction. So we've seen this very high death toll and also hundreds of people injured. It's likely that this neighborhood was targeted because most people who live here are Shiite Muslims and ISIS is Sunni, often target Shiites. But the people who habitually go there, it's a mixture.
爱丽丝·福德汉姆连线：对，没错。袭击发生在我去过很多次的巴格达附近。现在这个时间，伊拉克非常热，而且现在是斋月。人们在白天禁食和睡觉。晚上外出活动。虽然袭击发生在凌晨，但是当时这一地区到处都是人，人们在露天咖啡厅观看欧洲杯比赛，或是在附近购物，为下周的宰牲节做准备，因为传统是互相买衣服。
爆炸袭击导致一条街被大火吞噬。整个商店被烧毁，小巴被烧坏。所以死亡人数很高，另有数百人受伤。很可能这一地区被选为了目标，因为生活在这里的大部分人是什叶派穆斯林，而ISIS是以什叶派为袭击目标的逊尼派。不过经常来这一地区的人们来自各个族群。

MARTIN: So what does this mean about the strength of ISIS in Iraq right now? Because a couple weeks ago, we heard how Iraqi security forces have been able to push ISIS out of Fallujah. But clearly, ISIS is strong enough to be able to pull off an attack like this.
马丁：对于目前ISIS在伊拉克的力量，这意味着什么？几个星期以前，伊拉克安全部队成功将ISIS赶出了费卢杰。但是很明显，ISIS现在足够强大，可以实施这样的袭击。

FORDHAM: Right, exactly. It's kind of counterintuitive in a way. But one way of understanding it is if you let me take you back, actually, a couple of years to when ISIS was at their strongest in Iraq, they didn't control Baghdad, the capital. But they controlled a lot of the rest of the country. And actually, it seems then, at the time, that they were putting most of their energy into administering this territory, their so-called caliphate.
So in the last few weeks, as we have seen, Iraqi security forces and their allies have some impact on ISIS, drive them out of various cities that they had held. We've actually seen a return to these insurgent tactics, an uptick in car bombs and other insurgent attacks in Baghdad.
福德汉姆：没错。从某种程度上说，这有悖常理。可以这样理解，我们回想一下几年前的情况，当时ISIS在伊拉克处于最强时期，可是他们没有控制首都巴格达。而是控制了许多其他地区。看起来当时他们把大部分精力都投入到管理所谓的“哈里发帝国”的领土上了。
过去几周，我们看到伊拉克安全部队及其盟友对ISIS产生了影响，他们将ISIS从其掌握控制权的多个城市赶了出去。我们看到叛乱者手段的复苏，巴格达汽车爆炸袭击和其他反叛袭击的增加。

MARTIN: Has the Iraqi government weighed in? What's been the response to this horrific attack?
马丁：伊拉克政府有没有作出回应？他们对这起可怕袭击有何反应？

FORDHAM: Well, the prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, went to visit the site of the bombing, as he usually does when there has been a big attack like this. But it was very notable that he was met with a very angry reception. There has been a bit of a surge in his popularity recently after the retaking of the city of Fallujah from ISIS. But people are just furious that their government — despite the fact that Baghdad is full of checkpoints, it's full of troops — they can't prevent a huge attack happening like this in the city.
People are expressing outrage on social media. Some people hacked to the Interior Ministry website at one point, blaming them for allowing this to happen. And Haider al-Abadi, the prime minister, has faced some quite significant challenges from people who used to be his allies. And I think that this shows that Iraq has problems with its security — this insurgence, right? — but it also has problems with its politicians 'cause they're still perceived as weak and as responsible for things like this happening.
福德汉姆：伊拉克总理海德尔·阿巴迪前往遭遇爆炸袭击的地点，这是在发生这种大型袭击后他通常会做的事情。但是值得注意的是，这次迎接他的是人们的愤怒。在从ISIS手中收复费卢杰之后，他的声望有所提升。但是人们对他们的政府感到很愤怒，虽然巴格达到处都是安检站，到处都有士兵，但是他们却不能阻止这种大型袭击的发生。
人们在社交媒体上表达了他们的愤怒。一些人侵入了伊拉克内政部的网站，指责他们没能阻止袭击发生。海德尔·阿巴迪总理面临着重大挑战，而这些挑战来自于曾是他盟友的人们。我认为这表明，伊拉克的安全存在问题，在应对叛乱方面存在问题。同时，我也认为伊拉克的政治家们同样存在问题，外界仍然认为他们很软弱，而且应为这类袭击的发生负责。

MARTIN: NPR's Alice Fordham reporting from Beirut on the bombings in Baghdad. Thanks so much, Alice.
FORDHAM: Thank you for having me, Rachel.
马丁：以上是NPR新闻的爱丽丝·福德汉姆在贝鲁特就巴格达爆炸袭击进行的报道。非常谢谢你，爱丽丝。
福德汉姆：非常谢谢你和我连线，蕾切尔。