A suicide bomber detonated an explosive in a marketplace, killing 22 and injuring dozens more Friday, Al-Jazeera reports.
The incident occurred in Musayyib, a Shiite town located about 40 miles south of Baghdad. This was not the region’s first attack that day. Another bomb had gone off in the nearby city of Karbala just hours earlier, wounding several but yielding no casualties.
Shortly after, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing on its Amaq website. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan has been littered with terrorist attacks in other Iraqi regions.
Two weeks prior, another set of blasts hit the nation’s capital Baghdad, resulting in 27 deaths and hundreds more injured. ISIS also claimed for one of these incidents, this time a car bomb detonated in the district of Karrada.
Iraqi forces continue to go on the offensive fighting the terrorist group, and believe ISIS will soon be defeated after eight months of conflict. According to Iraqi authorities, the suicide bombings are a response to recent military defeats, and are likely to increase until all the Islamic State’s radical militant groups are exterminated from the country.