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IS claims responsibility for Baghdad bombing that killed 62

Residents in the area responded promptly after the detonation, aiding the injured by sending them to local hospitals in their personal cars.

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Due to the size of the explosion, fire men who responded were still dousing the area with water long after the blast.

“This is the strongest explosion I’ve ever seen in my life”, said the 37-year old father of three, speaking from his hospital bed where he was being treated for shrapnel injuries.

Four hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures, but spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

In a statement posted online, the Sunni Muslim militant group said it had targeted the army and militia fighters in the Shi’ite neighbourhood.

No body instantly claimed responsibility but State militants generally target Shiite neighborhoods for example Sadr City or mainly checkpoints, of delivering a note towards the Shiite using the objective -centered government.

While near-daily attacks are common in the capital, death tolls have rarely reached this level for a single attack since the height of the country’s brutal sectarian bloodletting in 2006 and 2007.

They see other minorities Shiite Muslims, in addition to, as apostates.

When they launched their major onslaught across northern Iraq last year, Islamic State vowed to continue on to Baghdad.

Earlier this week, a suicide vehicle bomb killed 30 people in the city of Baquba, 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

The group focused a well known marketplace within the western land of Diyala, eliminating over 115 people in another of the toughest simple assaults to rip through the nation in ten years, last month.

IS overran large parts of Iraq in June 2014, and Iraqi forces are battling to drive the jihadists back with support from a US-led coalition and Iran.

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Iraq is experiencing an upsurge in instability with the government struggling to contend with the ISIL group.

A Hashd al Shaabi fighter in Anbar. AFP