DHAKA: At least 35 people have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack in a busy square in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, security and medical sources said.

Sixty-one other people were injured by the blast in the predominantly Shia Muslim eastern district of Sadr City.

It is not known who was responsible, but so-called Islamic State has carried out similar attacks in the past.

The jihadist group said it was behind two suicide bombings at a market in the city on Saturday that killed 28 people.

Its self-styled news agency, Amaq, said the target of those attacks were Shia, whom it regards as apostates.

A later attack near the Shia holy city of Najaf left seven policemen dead.

A number of the victims of Monday’s attack are believed to have been daily laborers waiting for work at the 55th intersection in Sadr City.

Three policemen were also among those killed.

The attack happened as French President Francois Hollande visited the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service's academy near Baghdad.

He told French soldiers based there that fighting IS in Iraq was helping prevent terrorist attacks at home.

Hollande will later travel to the Kurdistan Region to meet troops advising pro-government forces taking part in the offensive to drive IS militants from the northern city of Mosul, their last major urban stronghold in the country.

Elsewhere in Iraq on Monday, IS militants attacked an army barracks near Baiji, about 180km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers, security sources told the Reuters news agency.

The militants seized weapons at the base and fired mortars at the nearby town of Shirqat, forcing the authorities to impose a curfew and close schools, officials said.

Gunmen are also reported to have summarily killed nine pro-government Sunni tribal fighters at a village near Udhaim, 90km (56 miles) north of Baghdad.

BDST: 1707 HRS, JAN 02, 2017
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