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IS Claims Deadly U.S. Consulate Blast In Iraq


The militant group Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for an April 17 bombing near the U.S. consulate in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region that killed two Turks.

IS said in a daily audio message posted online on April 18: "Security detachments were able to...detonate a car bomb left at the American consulate building in the city that led to the killing and wounding of many of them."

But the U.S. State Department said the bombing in Ainkawa, near the Kurdish regional capital, Irbil, did not kill or injure any consular employees.

Saman Barzanchi, the head of the Irbil health department, said April 18 that two ethnically Kurdish Turks were killed and eight people injured.

Officials had said April 17 three people were killed.

The relatively stable Kurdish region has largely been spared the bombings and shootings that have affected other parts of Iraq on an almost daily basis.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

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