Dozens of people, many of them Iranian Shia pilgrims, have been killed by a suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State near the Iraqi city of Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, in the deadliest single attack on Iranian nationals by the Sunni jihadi group.
A suicide truck bomb packed with litres of ammonium nitrate exploded on Thursday at a petrol station where several buses carrying Iranian pilgrims on their way back from the city of Kerbala had parked.
Hilla is situated between Kerbala and Najaf, two cities home to important religious sites for Shias. Reports of the death toll varied, with officials quoted by Reuters saying as many as people had died and others quoted by Associated Press putting the toll at at least 56 people, including 20 Iranians. Isis, which considers all Shias apostates issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. Falah al-Radhi, a security official for the province affected by the attack, said most of the people killed were Iranian nationals.
Although Iran is extensively involved in the fight against Isis in both Iraq and Syria , it has remained largely untouched by suicide bombings. Isis attacks such as those in Paris last November or in major cities in the Middle East are unheard of in the Iranian capital. In Iraq , however, they are a regular occurrence. In July, a bomb claimed by Isis killed about people, one of the worst atrocities to have hit the country since About 3 million Iranians are believed to have travelled to Iraq this week for the annual Shia commemoration of arbaeen , an important day in the Shia Muslim calendar..
Isis fighters particularly hate Iranian Shias. News of the bombing came as fighting continued in the northern city and Isis stronghold of Mosul, where a US-backed ground offensive by the Iraqi army is inching closer to more besieged parts of the city. As they lose ground in Mosul, the jihadis have intensified their attacks in other parts of Iraq. Isis has suffered major blows at the hands of the Iraqi army, supported by Iran-backed Shia militias and Kurdish peshmerga, in the five weeks since the Mosul offensive was launched.
