A least 60 killed in Iraq suicide bombing
A suicide bomb attack in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 60 people.
The suicide bomber was driving a truck when he attacked a security checkpoint on a strategic highway near Hilla, 90kilometres south of Baghdad.
Another 70 people were wounded in the blast near the city of Hilla, police officials said.
The responsibility for Sunday’s attack was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in a posting on the website of the sympathetic Amaq news agency.
“A martyr’s operation with a truck bomb hit the Babylon Ruins checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Hilla, killing and wounding dozens,” the ISIL statement on Amaq said.
Hilla is the capital of Babylon province, a predominantly Shia region with some Sunni presence.
Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said: “It was apparently a suicide bombing that occurred at a checkpoint that is usually manned by Iraq soldiers and federal police forces.
A long line of cars along that key road were also caught in the blast.”
“It’s the largest bombing in the province to date,” Falah al-Radhi, the head of the provincial security committee, told Reuters News Agency.
“The checkpoint, the nearby police station were destroyed as well as some houses and dozens of cars.”
Another explosion has killed several popular mobilisation fighters in Al Khaledeya near the city of Ramadi where Iraqi soldiers, with the help of coalition fighter jets, are trying to advance towards areas controlled by ISIL fighters.
ISIL has recently carried out a string of deadly assaults against Iraqi security forces.
Over the past week, a double bombing at a market in Baghdad’s Sadr City killed more than 70 people.
The following day a suicide attack at a funeral north of Baghdad killed about 30.
The suicide bomber was driving a truck when he attacked a security checkpoint on a strategic highway near Hilla, 90kilometres south of Baghdad.
Another 70 people were wounded in the blast near the city of Hilla, police officials said.
The responsibility for Sunday’s attack was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in a posting on the website of the sympathetic Amaq news agency.
“A martyr’s operation with a truck bomb hit the Babylon Ruins checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Hilla, killing and wounding dozens,” the ISIL statement on Amaq said.
Hilla is the capital of Babylon province, a predominantly Shia region with some Sunni presence.
Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said: “It was apparently a suicide bombing that occurred at a checkpoint that is usually manned by Iraq soldiers and federal police forces.
A long line of cars along that key road were also caught in the blast.”
“It’s the largest bombing in the province to date,” Falah al-Radhi, the head of the provincial security committee, told Reuters News Agency.
“The checkpoint, the nearby police station were destroyed as well as some houses and dozens of cars.”
Another explosion has killed several popular mobilisation fighters in Al Khaledeya near the city of Ramadi where Iraqi soldiers, with the help of coalition fighter jets, are trying to advance towards areas controlled by ISIL fighters.
ISIL has recently carried out a string of deadly assaults against Iraqi security forces.
Over the past week, a double bombing at a market in Baghdad’s Sadr City killed more than 70 people.
The following day a suicide attack at a funeral north of Baghdad killed about 30.
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