BAGHDAD: A car bombing on Monday evening in the Iraqi capital Baghdad killed at least 15 people and wounded 33, an interior ministry official told AFP.
The attack was claimed in an online statement by the jihadist Islamic State group, which gave a toll of 23 dead, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group reported.
The blast happened at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) in the busy business district of Hay al-Amel in the west of the city, he said.
The radical Sunni IS group is under assault in both Iraq – in the country’s second city Mosul which IS seized in June 2014 – and in neighbouring Syria.
In that year, the jihadists took vast swathes of Iraqi territory north and west of the capital.
Iraqi government forces backed by the US-led international coalition have since retaken many cities, including Tikrit.
But as IS has lost ground in Iraq, it has also retained the ability to stage regular attacks there. --AFP