At Least 60 Killed in Islamic State Suicide Bombing Outside Baghdad
On Sunday, a fuel tanker rigged with explosives detonated at a checkpoint south of Baghdad, Reuters reports, killing at least 60 people and wounding at least 70 more. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing.
“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,” a statement posted to the website of the pro-ISIS Amaq news agency claimed. Hilla is the capital of the predominantly Shi-ite Babylon province.
“It’s the largest bombing in the province to date,” Falah al-Radhi, the head of the provincial security committee, told Reuters. “The checkpoint, the nearby police station were destroyed as well as some houses and dozens of cars.”
According to Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, “It was apparently a suicide bombing, 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.”
A provincial hospital reported that 23 of those killed were members of the police and other security forces. The rest were civilians.
