At least 14 dead in Baghdad following suicide bombings

BAGHDAD (AP) - Suicide attacks targeting security forces in two Baghdad suburbs have killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens, officials said Sunday.

A suicide car bomb struck a checkpoint in the eastern suburb of Hussainiyah late Saturday, killing six civilians and four soldiers, a police officer said. He added that another 28 people were wounded in the attack. The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement posted on a militant website.

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Another police officer said a suicide car bomb struck a passing military convoy at around the same time in the southern suburb of Arab Jabour, killing four soldiers and wounding eight others.

A day earlier, a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in the southwestern suburb of Radwaniyah killed 13 worshippers and wounded 35 others, a police officer said.

Three medical officials confirmed the casualty figures from the weekend attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information.

Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes have pushed IS back on a number of fronts in recent months, clawing back territory seized by the extremists during their sweep across northern and western Iraq in 2014.

But IS has continued to carry out attacks in and around Baghdad, mainly targeting security forces and the country's Shiite majority.

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Associated Press writers Murtada Faraj in Baghdad and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

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