Islamic State bombing kills 60 in Baghdad

A truck bomb at an Iraqi security checkpoint south of Baghdad killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 70 on Sunday, officials said.

It was the third massive bombing in and around the Iraqi capital in a little over a week. The Islamic State, the militant group which has carried out scores of suicide attacks against security forces and the country’s Shia majority, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s blast.

The suicide attack, involving an explosive-laden fuel tanker, is the second deadliest this year after one on Feb. 28 that killed 78 people in Sadr City, a Shi'ite district of Baghdad.

This was also claimed by the ultra-hardline Sunni group that controls vast swathes of territory in Iraq and in Syria.

The escalation in Islamic State bombings suggests that Iraqi government forces are being stretched thin after their recent gains against the group in the western and northern provinces.

Responsibility for the bombing in Hilla, 117 kilometers (73 miles) south of Baghdad, was claimed in a posting on the website of the Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State.

"A martyr's operation with a truck bomb hit the Babylon Ruins checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Hilla, killing and wounding dozens," the statement on the Amaq website said.

Crowds gathered at the scene, picking through rubble and twisted car parts in search of survivors. Smoke rose from smouldering vehicles that had been lined up at the main checkpoint at the northern entrance to the city of Hillah, about 60 miles (95km) south of Baghdad.

“The blast has completely destroyed the checkpoint and its buildings,” Falah al-Khafaji, a senior security official in Hillah, said as he stood at the edge of the blast site. “More than 100 cars have been damaged.”

A provincial hospital official confirmed the number of casualties, adding that 23 of them were members of the police and other security forces that were manning the check point located at the northern entrance of the city.

The attacker struck shortly after noon local time when the checkpoint was crowded with dozens of cars, a police officer said.

There has been a rise in the number of violent attacks in Iraq over the past month, with Isis claiming responsibility for suicide attacks in which more than 170 people have died. The attacks follow a string of 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.

Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to a coalition fighting Islamic State, on Saturday told a news conference in Baghdad that Islamic State was losing the battle against forces arraigned against it from many sides in Iraq and Syria. He said the focus would turn to stabilizing cities seized back from them.