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IS Claims Responsibility for Car Bomb That Kills 23 in Baghdad


People gather at the site of car bomb attack in the Amil neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, March 21, 2017.
People gather at the site of car bomb attack in the Amil neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, March 21, 2017.

A car bomb has killed at least 23 people and wounded 45 more in Baghdad's southwestern Amil neighborhood, Iraqi officials said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Monday evening attack. The militants have carried out similar bombings in Baghdad and other cities as their hold on Mosul weakens.

The blast happened at 1600 UTC, a busy time in a business district of Baghdad.

Islamic State fighters have suffered a string of defeats over the past two years, losing more than 60 percent of the territory they once held in the country.

Iraqi forces, backed by the U.S.-led international coalition, are now closing in on retaking Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

Iraqi forces advanced in western Mosul, reaching the outskirts of the historic Grand Mosque of al-Nuri, where Islamic State’s leader declared the establishment of its self-styled caliphate in 2014.
Iraqi forces advanced in western Mosul, reaching the outskirts of the historic Grand Mosque of al-Nuri, where Islamic State’s leader declared the establishment of its self-styled caliphate in 2014.

The militarized Federal Police say they are about 500 meters from al-Nuri mosque, where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made a rare public appearance in July 2014, announcing a self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

The attack came as U.S. President Donald Trump met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Monday in Washington for talks that included cooperation in the campaign to defeat Islamic State.

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