Suicide car bomb kills 47 south of Baghdad; ISIS claims responsibility

Hilla:  A truck bomb exploded at a crowded checkpoint outside the city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, on Sunday, killing at least 47 people, officials and medical sources said.

Faleh al-Radhi, the head of the security committee of Babil provincial council, said "the attack was carried out against a checkpoint at the northern entrance to Hilla."

Pictures posted on social media showed vast destruction around the checkpoint, where cars are usually bumper-to-bumper at that time of day, queueing to be checked by security personnel.

A doctor at Hilla hospital said at least 11 of the wounded were in a very serious condition.

The Islamic State group, which carries out nearly all such attacks, has not had fixed positions south of Baghdad since security forces and allied militias began their fightback against the jihadists in late 2014.

A March 2014 suicide bombing at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Hilla, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the capital, killed 50 people and wounded more than 150.

he Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bomb blast that killed at least 47 people on Sunday in south of Baghdad.

In a statement posted on social media, IS named the bomber who detonated his explosives-laden truck at a checkpoint outside the city of Hilla as Abu Islam al-Ansari.

"The Rafidha (a derogatory term for Shiites) must understand that the battle has just begun and that the worst is yet to come," the statement said.