At least 24 people have been killed by a car bomb in the Sadr City district of Baghdad claimed by the Islamic State.



A statement distributed by the Isis-supporting Amaq news agency said it had targeted Shia Muslims, whom it considers apostates. Sixty-seven people were wounded in the blast.

Nine of the victims were women in a passing minibus. Their charred bodies were visible inside the burnt-out remains of the vehicle. Blood stained the ground nearby.

A separate blast near a hospital in central Baghdad killed one civilian and wounded nine, police and medical sources said.

Isis regularly targets civilian areas of the Iraqi capital, even after losing most of the northern and western territory it seized in 2014. US-backed Iraqi forces are fighting to drive Isis out of the northern city of Mosul, the group’s last major stronghold in the country, but they are facing fierce resistance.

“The terrorists will attempt to attack civilians in order to make up for their losses, but we assure the Iraqi people and the world that we are able to end terrorism and shorten its life,” the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, told reporters after meeting with visiting French president, François Hollande.



Hollande, whose country has faced a series of militant attacks in the past two years, said French soldiers serving in a US-led coalition against Isis in Iraq were preventing more mass killings at home.

The latest attacks come after three bombs killed 29 people across the capital on Saturday, and an attack near the southern city of Najaf on Sunday left seven policemen dead.



As clashes continued in and around Mosul on Monday, Isis also targeted military positions away from the main battlefield.



Isis attacks on military positions also killed 16 pro-government fighters in the north of Baghdad on Monday and militants also attacked an army barracks near Baiji, 112 miles north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and wounding 12 people, including Sunni tribal fighters.

They also seized weapons and launched mortars at nearby Shirqat, forcing security forces to impose a curfew and close schools and offices in the town, according to local officials and security sources.