IS-claimed blast kills at least 24 at Iraq Shiite funeral
BAQUBA: A suicide bomber struck a Shiite funeral northeast of Baghdad Monday, killing at least 24 people, including militia commanders, i n an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, officials said.
The blast in Muqdadiyah, which was hit by a wave of revenge attacks on Sunni homes and mosques after a January suicide bombing, also wounded dozens of people.
The bombing targeted a funeral for a well-known Shiite member of the Beni Tamim, one of the main tribes in Diyala province, where Muqdadiyah is located.
S ad iq a l - Hus s ei n i , t he head of the Diyala province security committee, said that a commander from Asaib Ahl alHaq and another from Badr — two powerful Shiite militias — were killed in the blast.
The Islamic State jihadist group claimed the attack in an online statement, saying a suicide bomber who detonated an explosive belt targeted a gathering of militiamen in Muqdadiyah.
It listed the names of some who were allegedly killed.
Suicide bombings are a tactic almost exclusively employed in Iraq by IS, a Sunni extremist group that overran swathes of the country in 2014.
The Muqdadiyah attack came a day after bombings in a Shiite area of northern Baghdad killed at least 39 people and wounded at least 76, the deadliest attacks in the capital so far this year.
IS said in an online statement that two of its suicide bombers carried out the Baghdad attacks. — AFP