PHOTO: A man reacts with anguish to Sunday’s bombing near Hilla, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad (Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters)
The second-deadliest Islamic State bombing this year killed at least 60 people south of Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Sunday.
The suicide truck bomb was detonated at a crowded checkpoint at the northern entrance to Hilla at 1 p.m., as traffic waited to be inspected by security personnel. It was the third large bombing in just over a week.
A doctor at Hilla hospital said that the dead included 23 members of the security forces, and that at least 72 people were wounded with 11 in very serious condition.
“When I got to the scene, there were people whose clothes were still on fire, they were screaming,” said Hamza Kadhem, a labourer.
Taxi driver Karim Sahi was also close to the checkpoint: “When we heard the blast, we rushed to the scene. There were bodies everywhere, people running in all directions, some just froze there, screaming.”
The bombing was the deadliest since an ISIS attack killed 78 people in Sadr City, a Shi’ite district of Baghdad, on February 28.
A March 2014 suicide bombing at the same checkpoint outside Hilla, 80 km (50 miles) south of the capital, killed 50 people and wounded more than 150.
ISIS has not had fixed positions in Baghdad since late 2014 and has been under pressure in other areas of the country, losing territory to a combination of Kurdish forces, the Iraqi army, and mainly-Shia militia, supported by US-led airstrikes and Iranian officers on the ground.
“The Rafidha [Shia] must understand that the battle has just begun and that the worst is yet to come,” the Islamic State said as it claimed Sunday’s bombing.