Isis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s atrocity, which struck a district of the city home to mainly Shia Muslims, who are considered “apostates” by the group.
A vehicle packed with explosives was detonated minutes after midnight local time as the area bustled with families shopping at the popular al-Hadi Centre ahead of celebrations marking the end of Ramadan.
The blast engulfed the shopping mall and surrounding cafes and flames that receded to leave the buildings gutted and charred, with many bodies unrecognisable.
It was the deadliest bombing to hit Baghdad in more than a decade of war and insurgency, coming amid a series of almost daily attacks by the so-called Islamic State as it continues to lose territory in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Mohammed Ghabban, the Iraqi interior minister, announced his resignation on Thursday amid growing public anger over the inability of state security forces to protect civilians.
He previously said the car bomb – concealed in a refrigeration van - came from the eastern province of Diyala and blamed a lack of communication between multiple forces in charge of Baghdad’s security.
There were unconfirmed reports that the vehicle came through checkpoints manned by officers using fake bomb detectors, five years after the “magic wand” devices were exposed as a sham and sparked several prosecutions in the UK.
A police officer in Baghdad confirmed the hand-held ADE 651 detectors were still in use.
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