IS, a mainly Sunni group has claimed responsibility for the bombing at a football stadium in Iraq that killed at least 29 persons.
A suicide bomber had blown himself up in a soccer stadium, killing scores and wounding about 60.
The bombing took place during a match in the small stadium in the city of Iskanderiyah, 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Baghdad, the officials said.
A local police captain said the suicide bomber blew himself up in the crowd as the trophy was being handed to the winners, AFP news agency reported.
The town’s mayor was among those killed, the agency added, quoting an unnamed medical source.
Medical officials confirmed the death toll. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack via a statement posted online, SITE intelligence group, a monitoring organization, reported.
IS has been waging a campaign of suicide bombings in and around the capital as Iraqi forces and their allies battle the militants in the north and west of the country.
The bombing came as Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rusoul announced that Iraqi troops and Sunni tribal fighters recaptured the town of Kubeisa in western Anbar province from the Islamic State group.
A day earlier, IS fighters were pushed out of a string of villages in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province under cover of heavy coalition airstrikes.
On Tuesday, bombings in Brussels claimed by IS killed 31 people and injured nearly 300.
[Source: AFP]