A suicide car
bomb blast claimed by Islamic State killed at least 13 people and
wounded more than 50 others at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad on
Sunday, police and medical sources said.
The
attacker drove the car through a gate to the market in the mainly
Shi’ite district of Jamila, and detonated the bomb after security forces
opened fire on the vehicle, a police source said.
Islamic State claimed the attack in an online statement, saying the bomber had targeted “a gathering of Shi’ites” in the area.
A series of attacks in the Iraqi capital and other cities in the country have killed dozens of people in just over a week.
Several have been claimed by Islamic
State, which is coming under increasing pressure from a U.S.-backed
offensive in Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq.
Iraqi
forces advanced to within several hundred meters of the Tigris river
than runs through Mosul on Saturday, as their operation against the
ultra-hardline group gathers pace.
Islamic
State is likely to resort to bomb attacks and similar tactics elsewhere
in Iraq as it is driven out of its Mosul stronghold.
