Daesh claims deadly US consulate blast in Iraq

Daesh group claimed Saturday a bombing near the US consulate in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region a day earlier that killed two Turks.

"Security detachments were able to... detonate a car bomb left at the American consulate building in the city that led to the killing and wounding of many of them," IS said in a daily audio message posted online.

But the US State Department said the bombing in Ainkawa, near Kurdish regional capital Arbil, did not kill or wound any consular employees.

Saman Barzanchi, the head of the Arbil health department, said Saturday that two ethnically Kurdish Turks were killed and eight people wounded.

Officials had said Friday three people were killed.

An IS-spearheaded offensive overran large areas of Iraq last year, and forces from the Kurdistan region have battled the jihadists on multiple fronts in the north.

The relatively stable region has largely been spared the bombings and shootings that have plagued other parts of Iraq on an almost daily basis.

The last major attack was a suicide car bombing near the governor's compound in Arbil in November.
Source: AFP