ISIS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack with an explosive-laden fuel tanker on an Iraqi police checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than 70, medical and security officials said.
An AFP report said 47 people were killed.
ISIS claimed the attack in a posting on the website of the Amaq news agency, which supports the ultra-hardline Sunni group.
“A martyr’s operation with a truck bomb hit the Babylon Ruins checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Hilla, killing and wounding dozens,” the statement on the Amaq website said.
Hilla is the capital of Babylon province, a predominantly Shia region with some Sunni presence.
The massive blast completely destroyed the checkpoint manned by security forces guarding the northern entrance to Hilla, an area that had recently been spared such attacks.
“It’s the largest bombing in the province to date,” Falah al-Radhi, the head of the provincial security committee, said. “The checkpoint and the nearby police station were destroyed as well as some houses and dozens of cars.”
Pictures posted on social media showed vast destruction around the checkpoint, where cars are usually bumper-to-bumper at that time of day, queueing to be checked by security personnel.
A provincial hospital official confirmed the number of casualties. Many had suffered burn injuries.
The ISIS group has not had fixed positions south of Baghdad since security forces and allied militias began their fightback against the jihadists in late 2014.
A March 2014 suicide bombing at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Hilla, 80 km south of the capital, killed 50 people and wounded over 150.
In the cities that ISIS retains control over, internal tension appears to be on the rise and the lack of supplies is taking its toll.
Observers warned that, as its self-proclaimed “caliphate” shrinks towards extinction, ISIS will likely revert to its old guerrilla tactics and ramp up suicide car bomb attacks on civilian targets.
“The Rafidha (a derogatory term for Shias) must understand that the battle has just begun and that the worst is yet to come," ISIS said as it claimed the bombing.