Baghdad: Two suicide car bombs claimed by ISIS killed at least 32 people and wounded 75 others in the centre of the southern Iraqi city of Samawa today, police and medics said.
The first blast was near a local government building and the second one about 60 metres (65 yards) away at a bus station, police sources said. The death toll was expected to keep rising.
Unverified online photographs showed a large plume of smoke rising above the buildings as well as burnt out cars and bodies on the ground at the site of one of the blasts, including several children. Police and firefighters carried victims on stretchers and in their arms.
ISIS said it had attacked a gathering of special forces in Samawa, 230 km (140 miles) south of the capital, with one car bomb and then blew up the second when security forces responded to the site.
ISIS holds positions mostly in Sunni areas of the country's north and west, far from the mainly Shi'ite southern provinces where Samawa is located. Such attacks are relatively rare.
The rise of the ultra-hardline Sunni insurgents has exacerbated Iraq's sectarian conflict, mostly between Shi'ites and Sunnis, which emerged after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The quota-based governing system put in place by the United States at the time is being challenged by hundreds of protesters who camped out overnight in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone after storming the parliament building.
The first blast was near a local government building and the second one about 60 metres (65 yards) away at a bus station, police sources said. The death toll was expected to keep rising.
Unverified online photographs showed a large plume of smoke rising above the buildings as well as burnt out cars and bodies on the ground at the site of one of the blasts, including several children. Police and firefighters carried victims on stretchers and in their arms.
ISIS holds positions mostly in Sunni areas of the country's north and west, far from the mainly Shi'ite southern provinces where Samawa is located. Such attacks are relatively rare.
Advertisement
The quota-based governing system put in place by the United States at the time is being challenged by hundreds of protesters who camped out overnight in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone after storming the parliament building.
© Thomson Reuters 2016
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
What Pak's Ex ISI Chief, Facing Court Martial, Is Accused Of Pak Ex ISI Chief Faiz Hameed Taken Into Army Custody Ahead Of Court Martial "Was Playing With Ideas": Lawyer Of Suspect In Taylor Swift Concert Attack Plot Nurse Raped, Killed On Way Home, Body Found 9 Days Later In UP "Don't Expect Anything From Me": Kolkata Hospital's New Principal Loses Cool Rahul Gandhi's Seat At Red Fort Triggers Fresh Congress Attack On BJP Ukraine, Russia Both Claim Advances In Kursk Region Gaza Ceasefire Talks Underway In Qatar As Deaths Top 40,000 Trump To Hold Press Conference, His Campaign Adds Senior Advisers Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.