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ISIS Claims Credit for Suicide Bomb That Killed 10 in Central Baghdad

At least 10 people were killed in Baghdad late on Monday in a car bomb attack claimed by ISIS in a district that saw over 300 people killed in July.
Image: IRAQ-CONFLICT-BOMBING
Iraqis stand near a damaged building in the aftermath of a car bomb explosion in the Karrada district of the capital Baghdad in which several people were killed on September 6, 2016.AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP - Getty Images
/ Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD — At least 10 people were killed in Baghdad late on Monday in a car bomb attack claimed by ISIS near a hospital in a central district, police and hospital sources said.

A suicide bomber had targeted a gathering of Shi'ite Muslims in the Karrada district, according to a statement circulated online by the Amaq news agency, which supports the ultra-hardline Sunni militant group.

The police sources said at least 39 people were also wounded in the blast and they expected the death toll to rise.

Image: IRAQ-CONFLICT-BOMBING
Iraqis stand near a damaged building in the aftermath of a car bomb explosion in the Karrada district of the capital Baghdad in which several people were killed on September 6, 2016.AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP - Getty Images

The fight against ISIS, which seized a third of Iraq's territory in 2014, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between the Shi'ite majority and the Sunni minority.

The militants have lost ground in the past year to U.S.-backed government forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias, but such bombings show they can still strike outside the territory they control in northern and western Iraq.

Related: ISIS Loses Control of Fallujah

Monday's blast occurred not far from the site of an ISIS suicide attack in July that killed 324 people in one of the deadliest bombings of its sort in Iraq since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.