A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a checkpoint outside a Shiite town north of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 14 people, Iraqi officials said, while a string of bombings in the Iraqi capital killed nine more people.
(FOX)- Monday’s checkpoint bombing took place at one of the busy entrances to the town of Khalis, about 50 miles north of the Iraqi capital, a police officer said. The town is a Shiite enclave surrounded by Sunni areas in the restive Diyala province.
Eight policemen and six civilians were killed and up to 41 people were wounded, the officers said, adding that the explosion also damaged nearly 20 cars lined up at the checkpoint.
In an online statement, IS group claimed responsibility for the attack. The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremists.
In Baghdad, separate bomb explosions rocked three commercial areas — Ghazaliya, Bayaa and al-Ameen — later on Monday, killing nine and wounding 26, police said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for these attacks, which bore the hallmarks of the extremist Islamic State group. Commercial areas and big gatherings of Shiite followers are among the most common targets for the extremist group.