AGENCY
HILLA: The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bomb blast that killed at least 47 people on Sunday in south of Baghdad.
In a statement posted on social media, IS named the bomber who detonated his explosives-laden truck at a checkpoint outside the city of Hilla as Abu Islam al-Ansari.
“The Rafidha (a derogatory term for Shiites) must understand that the battle has just begun and that the worst is yet to come,” the statement said.
A car bomb exploded at a crowded checkpoint outside the city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, on Sunday, killing at least 47 people, police and medical sources said.
Faleh al-Radhi, the head of the security committee of Babil provincial council, said “the attack was carried out against a checkpoint at the northern entrance to Hilla.”
A doctor at Hilla hospital put the number of people killed by the blast at 47, including around 20 members of the security forces, and said at least 72 people were also wounded.
The group claimed that the explosion had killed and wounded “more than 90” people. The attack was the deadliest bombing by IS in Iraq this year.
