[4] A few minutes after midnight local time (2 July, 21:00 UTC), a suicide truck-bomb targeted the mainly Shia district of Karrada, busy with late night shoppers for Ramadan.

On 18 October 2021, Prime Minister of Iraq Mustafa Al-Kadhimi announced that Ghazwan al-Zawbaee, the man behind the bombing was arrested by Iraqi security forces.

"We are used to big fires but the chemicals in this bomb were used for the first time in Iraq," according to Brigadier General Kadhim Bashir Saleh of the Iraqi Civil Defense Force.

[11] Abdel Ghani Saadon, the general manager of Rusafa Health Directorate, issued a statement noting that the "hospitals of al-Kandi, al-Sadr and Sheikh Zayed received 138 wounded and 70 dead bodies of al-Karrada bombing".

[27] The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant issued a statement claiming that it was responsible for the attack and that it had deliberately targeted Shia Muslims,[3] further identifying the suicide bomber as Abu Maha al-Iraqi.

[12][3] Jasim al-Bahadli, a former army officer and security analyst in Baghdad, stated that the attack was an ISIL attempt to "compensate for their humiliating defeat in Falluja".

[11] The Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the scene of the attack on the following day, and was met by angry crowds shouting "thief" and "dog".

[29] After reporting in their most recent death toll, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence issued a statement admitting they were overwhelmed, with not enough resources, military checkpoints, and intelligence services to properly manage the security of Baghdad.

[13] A representative of Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Ahmed al-Safi, paid a visit to the site of the bombings.

On 6 July, New Zealand's Sky Tower in Auckland was lit up in the red, white, and black colors of the Iraqi flag to honour the victims of the attack.

This initiative came at the urging of an Iraqi-New Zealander named Rania Alani who had called on the Sky Tower management to honour the victims of all attacks equally.

In addition, the Auckland Iraqi community held a candlelit vigil at the Mission Bay fountain in a show of solidarity with the Baghdad bombing victims.