A car bomb blast killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 45 others in a mainly Shi'ite district in southern Baghdad on Monday, police and medical sources said. The attack - as Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi met US President Donald Trump in Washington DC - targeted a busy commercial district of the Hay al-Amel suburb, according to police and hospital officials. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, which bore all the hallmarks of a suicide attack by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said the officers were caught around 3am local time in the Bab Jadid disctrict in Mosul, where Iraqi forces are battling ISIL after securing the eastern half of the city. Iraq declared eastern Mosul "fully liberated" in January and is now fighting for the more densely populated western half.
A car bomb in Baghdad's southwestern Hayy Al-A'amel neighborhood kills at least 23 people, and wounds 45 others.