Baghdad car bomb kills 11: Officials

 A car bombing Saturday in a Shiite-majority area of north Baghdad where people gather to buy and sell vehicles killed 11 people and wounded at least 68, Iraqi officials said.

Baghdad car bomb kills 11: Officials

Baghdad: A car bombing Saturday in a Shiite-majority area of north Baghdad where people gather to buy and sell vehicles killed 11 people and wounded at least 68, Iraqi officials said.

The blast hit Sadr City, the same district where a massive truck bomb ripped through a wholesale vegetable market just two days before, killing at least 54 people.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the latest attack, according to monitoring group SITE, saying that they had targeted a gathering of soldiers, police and Shiite.

The jihadist group said more than 20 people were killed.

IS frequently targets Shiites, whom it considers heretics, fuelling sectarian tensions in the country, and often strikes areas such as markets and cafes where crowds gather.

IS overran large parts of Iraq in June 2014 and also holds significant territory in neighbouring Syria.

Iraqi forces have since regained ground from the jihadists, but much of western Iraq remains outside government control.

Even before the IS offensive, bombings targeting civilians in Iraq were a major threat, killing hundreds of people a month.

With jihadists occupied with fighting elsewhere, the frequency of blasts in Baghdad has declined since the IS offensive, but there have still been a number of major bombings in the city in recent months.

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