An injured man stands at the site of a car bomb attack in the Karrada district in Baghdad.

At least nine people were killed in Baghdad late on Monday in a car bomb attack claimed by ISIS near a hospital in a central district, police and hospital sources said.

A suicide bomber had targeted a gathering of Shiite Muslims in the Karrada district, according to a statement circulated online by the Amaq news agency, which supports the ultra-hardline militant group.

The police and hospital sources said 20 people were also wounded in the blast and they expected the death toll to rise.

The fight against ISIS, which seized a third of Iraq’s territory in 2014, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq.

The militants have lost ground in the past year to US-backed government forces and Iranian-backed Shiite militias, but such bombings show they can still strike outside the territory they control in northern and western Iraq.

Monday’s blast occurred not far from the site of an ISIS suicide attack in July that killed 324 people in one of the deadliest bombings of its sort in Iraq since US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.

[vuukle]

Related articles across the web

• Islamic State claims suicide bomb that kills 9 in central Baghdad
• ISIS Claims Suicide Bombing that Killed 15 People at Wedding in Iraq on Sunday
• Iraq hangs 36 people sentenced to death for 2014 killings
• Iraq put out fire at four oil wells in freed town
• Iraq executes 36 men convicted in Islamic State massacre
• Iraq requests Saudi envoy be changed
• Suicide bomber strikes wedding in Iraq, kills 15
• Suicide bomber strikes wedding in Iraq, kills 15
• Senior member of anti-Iran MKO escapes from Camp Liberty in Iraq
• 155 of Saddam's and Obama's MEK Terrorists Shipped To Albania