IS Claims Basra Bombing

The self-styled Islamic State terrorist group claimed a suicide car bombing on a highway near oilfields in Iraq’s southern Basra Province on Friday.

More than 50 people have been killed in a string of suicide car bomb attacks in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, and the southern province of Basra, Reuters reported.

At least 33 people were killed on Friday in two separate blasts at checkpoints on a highway near oilfields in Basra, according to police.

The first explosion took place at the Rumeila checkpoint and the second around 1 kilometer away at another checkpoint called Al-Sadra.

Iraq’s South Oil Company said there was no disruption to operations but oil police were put on maximum alert in response to the attack, officials told Reuters.

Separately, two more attacks late on Friday killed at least 19 people, including security forces, and wounded 25 others in southern Baghdad. Police sources said a suicide car bomber detonated explosives at the entrance of a checkpoint, just as another attacker blew himself up near a police station located about 100 meters away.