A car packed with explosives blew up on Thursday in southern Baghdad, killing at least 51 people and wounding 55, security and medical sources said, in the deadliest such attack in Iraq this year. Security sources said the vehicle which blew up on Thursday was parked in a crowded street full of garages and used car dealers, in Hayy al-Shurta, a Shi'ite district in the southwest of the city. That explosion took place in a street full of used car dealers. US-backed Iraqi forces have dislodged Islamic State from most of the cities it captured in 2014 and 2015. Iraqi government forces last month captured eastern Mosul and are now preparing an offensive on the western side that remains under the militants' control.

Source: Egypt Independent February 18, 2017 08:26 UTC