At least 60 people were killed and dozens more were injured in a suicide attack by Islamic State in Iraq yesterday in which a fuel truck rigged with explosives was rammed into a checkpoint.
It was the fourth mass casualty bomb attack conducted by the group in Iraq in days and marks the start of a campaign of attacks deep behind front lines to wreak havoc and force the government to overextend its forces.
The attack happened after noon, when dozens of cars were queuing at the checkpoint at the northern entrance to the city of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad. The explosion tore apart the checkpoint and burnt people in their cars. Thirty-nine of the dead were civilians, the rest police officers.
Crowds gathered at the scene, picking through rubble and twisted car parts in search of survivors as vehicles continued to burn. The victims had been waiting to have identity documents checked before entering the city.
Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on the website of Amaq, the pro-Isis news agency. According to Reuters, the group’s statement said: “A martyr’s operation with a truck bomb hit the Babylon Ruins checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Hillah, killing and wounding dozens.”
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Hillah is in the mainly Shia south, far from the front lines of the war against Isis. More than 170 people have been killed in Isis suicide attacks in Iraq in the past month. The attacks follow advances by Iraqi forces backed by US-led airstrikes, including in the western city of Ramadi, which was declared fully “liberated” by Iraqi and US-led coalition officials last month.
At least 670 Iraqis were killed last month, of whom about two-thirds were civilians, according to UN figures.