Car bomb kills 11 in Shiite area of Baghdad

A car bomb exploded near a market in a Shiite-majority area of eastern Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 11 people, security officials said.

The blast in the Ameen area also wounded at least 39 people, the officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but bombings in the capital are often carried out by the Daesh jihadist group, which overran swathes of Iraq in June last year.

Daesh frequently targets members of Iraq's Shiite majority, whom it considers heretics.

But bombings in Baghdad are much less frequent than they were before the 2014 jihadist offensive, likely because the militants are occupied with operations elsewhere.

Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition and Iran have managed to regain significant ground north of Baghdad from Daesh, but much of western Iraq remains outside government control.
Source: AFP