Islamic State car bomb kills six in Baghdad

A car bomb in eastern Baghdad claimed by Islamic State killed six civilians and wounded 15 on Thursday, police and medics said.

The Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, also known as Isis, said a parked car loaded with explosives in the al-Obeidi area had targeted a gathering of Shia Muslims, whom the ultra-hardline Sunni group considers apostates.

Attacks across Baghdad in the past week, some claimed by Islamic State, have killed more than 60 people, with violence escalating as US-backed Iraqi forces try to drive the militants from the northern city of Mosul.

Islamic State has lost most of the territory it seized in northern and western Iraq in 2014, and ceding Mosul would probably spell the end of its self-styled caliphate. However, its insurgent capabilities in Iraq persist.