ISIS suicide blast rips through petrol station and kills at least 70 people south of Baghdad
The terror group is desperately fighting to retain a foothold in Mosul, northern Iraq
A SUICIDE blast claimed by ISIS has killed at least 70 people south of Baghdad, the latest in a string of jihadi attacks as Iraqi forces battle to retake Mosul.
The huge truck bomb blast ripped through a petrol station where buses packed with pilgrims were parked, officials said.
They were returning from the Arbaeen commemoration in Karbala, one of the world's largest religious events.
Most of the victims were Iranian Shiite pilgrims, the largest contingent of foreigners in the pilgrimage.
ISIS, which is fighting to defend its Mosul stronghold in northern Iraq, claimed responsibility for the bomb.
The attack took place near a village called Shomali, about 75 miles southeast of Baghdad.
ISIS said a bomber "blew up his vehicle amidst their assembly, inflicting among them more than 200 killed and wounded, including Iranians."
Falah al-Radhi, head of the provincial security committee for Babylon, the province where the bombing happened, said it had targeted several buses.
"A large truck exploded among them. It was a suicide attack," he told AFP.
"There are at least 70 dead, fewer than 10 are Iraqis, the rest are Iranians."
Videos circulating on social media showed debris scattered over a large area along the main highway linking Baghdad to the main southern port city of Basra.
"There are completely charred corpses at the scene," said Radhi, who added that at least 20 wounded were transferred to nearby hospitals.
The Joint Operations Command in Baghdad issued a statement saying the truck was packed with 500 litres of ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound used in many explosive devices.
Up to 20 million people visited Karbala for Arbaeen this year.
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Iraq deployed around 25,000 members of the security forces in and around the shrine city to protect the pilgrims from a feared ISIS attack.
The jihadist group, which is losing ground in Mosul, carried out a series of high-profile diversionary attacks since Iraqi forces launched a huge offensive against their northern stronghold last month.
Elite forces battled IS jihadists in eastern Mosul om Thursday, looking for fresh momentum in their five-week-old offensive to retake the city.
Maan al-Saadi, a commander with the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), told AFP: "They cannot flee. They have two choices -- give up or die."
Over the past few days, Iraqi forces have cut off the main supply line running from Mosul to the western border with Syria, where IS still controls the city of Raqqa.
The US-led coalition also bombed bridges over the Tigris river that splits Mosul in two, reducing the jihadists' ability to resupply the eastern front.
"The Iraqi advance on the south and southeast of the city has started to pick up some steam, which we think is a really great development," coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said.
"It is extraordinarily tough fighting, just brutal, but there is an inevitability to it. The Iraqis are going to beat them."
ISIS fighters moving in an intricate network of tunnels have used snipers, booby traps and a seemingly endless supply of suicide car bombers to stop Iraqi forces.
The authorities have not released casualty figures since the start of the offensive but fighters have admitted being surprised by how fierce ISIS resistance has been.
