A suicide car bomb ripped through a busy outdoor market Monday night near the Iraqi city of Baquba, killing at least 30 people and wounding 40 others, police and health officials said.
In a statement posted on Twitter and re-tweeted by several of its supporters, ISIS said its members were behind the attack — a claim that’s hardly surprising, given the group’s grisly record of terror in war-torn Iraq and neighboring Syria.
It was not immediately clear who carried out a roadside bombing that happened in the same general area about an hour later that killed four more people, according to local officials.
Both blasts were in predominantly Shiite Muslim areas. ISIS consists of Sunni Muslim extremists.
Baquba is a large city in central Iraq about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Baghdad and 140 miles south of Kirkuk. Like many other communities around the Middle Eastern nation, Baquba has been caught up in ISIS’ bloody campaign, with its militants threatening the city as early as mid-2014.
And just last month, a truck loaded with explosives exploded at an outdoor market in the same vicinity — the community of Khan Bani Saad, which is about 21 miles north of Baghdad — killing at least 86 people, Baquba police and health officials said.
Videos posted on social media after that blast showed fire, bodies and debris over a wide area. Several multistory buildings appeared to have been heavily damaged.
ISIS boasted on Twitter of being behind that attack.
