A suicide truck bomber targeted a police checkpoint in southern Baghdad on Wednesday night, killing 17 people and wounding at least 60 others. The bomber detonated the vehicle – an oil tanker laden with explosives, security and hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations.
They say more than 40 people were injured when the bomber detonated the vehicle – an oil tanker laden with explosives – at the checkpoint in the south of the capital. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. So-called Islamic State has recently carried out similar attacks in Iraq.
Iraqi forces are fighting IS in western Mosul, where some 2,000 IS fighters are launching fierce counterattacks. After the beginning the operation to retake Mosul in October, Iraqi authorities in January declared they have liberated eastern Mosul, which is separated from the city’s western neighbourhoods by the Tigris River.
