(Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters)At least 70 people were killed on Thursday, most of them Shiite Muslim pilgrims from Iran, when an explosive-laden tanker truck detonated at a gas station south of Baghdad in an attack claimed by the Islamic State, according to Iraqi officials. The bombing was the deadliest in Iraq since July, when a suicide bomber killed more than 300 people in Baghdad, the capital. The attack came as Iraqi forces are battling for control of the city of Mosul, in northern Iraq, which has been held by the Sunni Muslim jihadists of the Islamic State for more than two years. In one such attack, dozens of militants stormed Kirkuk, east of Mosul, and killed more than 80 people, most of them civilians. [Islamic State is kidnapping thousands of people to use as human shields]The attacks have added to a staggering civilian toll during the battle for Mosul, which began in mid-October.

Source: Washington Post November 24, 2016 17:24 UTC