On Sunday, at least 73 people were killed and 110 others injured, some seriously, in an attack carried out in Baghdad by the terrorist militia Islamic State. The Federal Government condemns this cowardly terrorist attack in the strongest possible terms. The murder of innocent passers‑by in the Iraqi capital shows once again just how randomly the terrorists of the self‑proclaimed Islamic State select their targets.

In so doing, the terrorists belie the Islamist message of salvation that they preach, while at the same time revealing that they are operating from a position of weakness. The efforts of the international anti‑ISIS coalition are yielding results; Islamic State’s advance has been halted and the terrorist organisation has been forced back from a number of regions. What IS is resorting to are terrorist attacks such as this – an act of desperation in military terms that accepts the fact that so many members of Iraqi civil society must fall victim to senseless violence as its price.