A teen suicide bomber blew himself up in an outdoor market on Sunday, a strike that killed at least five people, an Iraqi official said.
The incident took place in Muqdadiya and a claim of responsibility by ISIS was posted on social media.
Col. Mohammed Ibrahim, the spokesman of Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, said the mother of the 14-year-old suicide attacker informed security officers in Muqdadiya that her son was planning to carry out the attack.
Muqdadiya is 60 kilometers, or more than 37 miles, north of Baghdad and is in Diyala province, the scene of steady violence over the years.
This comes several days after Iraqi security forces and supporting militias retook the key town of Karma from ISIS, the government’s first significant victory in its push to reclaim Falluja from ISIS, the command said.
Iraqi government troops, backed by Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilization Units and an air campaign by the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition, launched an offensive last week to retake Falluja, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad.
Falluja remains, along with Mosul, one of the last two Iraqi cities under the Sunni terror group’s control. Falluja fell in January 2014, becoming the first Iraqi city that ISIS captured.
