At least 33 killed in IS twin suicide bombings in Iraq

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for rare attacks in Iraq's deep Shiite south on Sunday, May 1, twin suicide car bomb blasts in the city of Samawa killing at least 33 people, AFP reports.

"The hospitals have received 33 dead," a senior official in the Muthanna health department, which covers Samawa, told AFP. An officer in Muthanna Operations Command confirmed the toll.

They said at least 50 people were also wounded in the blasts in Samawa, 230 kilometres south of Baghdad.

"Two car bombs went off in town. The first one was at around midday near a bus station in the city centre," a senior police officer in Muthanna province said.

"The other exploded about five minutes later, 400 metres from the spot of the first explosion," he said.

IS issued a statement later on social media claiming two suicide attackers detonated their car bombs against members of the security forces, AFP says.

It named the bombers as Abu Dayyar al-Qurashi and Abu Zubayr al-Zaidi, saying that the second blew up his car bomb as security forces rushed to the scene of the first blast.

Samawa is the capital of Muthanna and lies deep in Iraq's Shiite heartland and such attacks there are rare.

Muthanna also borders Saudi Arabia and a vast Iraqi desert that connects the troubled province of Anbar with the south.