Baghdad - Thirty-five people were killed and 33 injured in a
string of suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State extremist
militia in two Iraqi cities, police said Saturday.
The overnight attacks involving car bombings targeted security
checkpoints in the capital Baghdad and the southern city of Basra,
they added.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the four bombings in online
statements.
In recent months, Islamic State has stepped up its attacks in
different parts of Iraq in a bid to distract attention from an
ongoing US-backed campaign to dislodge it from its last key
stronghold of Mosul in Iraq.
On February 19, Iraqi forces started a major offensive to wrest back
the western section of Mosul from Islamic State, almost a month after
they recaptured the eastern part of the city.
Over the past weeks, government forces have retaken
several neighbourhoods in western Mousl, squeezing the Islamic State
militants into small-but-densely populated parts of the city.
Islamic State seized Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in a blitz in
mid-2014.