A suicide truck bomb blew up at a checkpoint in the south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 60, police sources said.
They said the bomber detonated his explosives among other vehicles waiting to be searched at the checkpoint, setting some of them on fire.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. But the attack occurred with Daesh battling Iraqi forces in its last stronghold in the country in the city of Mosul.
As the militants have lost territory captured in a 2014 offensive across northern and western Iraq, they have stepped up bomb attacks elsewhere.
Though no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the bombing comes as about 2,000 Daesh extremists battle with Iraqi forces in western Mosul, a former stronghold for the militants.
The chief of Iraq’s Federal Police recently announced that 90 percent of Mosul’s Old City had been retaken by Iraqi forces.
