IS Attack On Baghdad Factory Leaves At Least 11 Dead

The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has launched a deadly assault on a state-run cooking-gas factory north of Baghdad.

According to Iraqi officials, at least 11 people were killed and more than 20 others wounded.

The May 15 attack started at dawn when a suicide car bomb went off near the entrance of the facility, about 20 kilometers north of Baghdad. A group of suicide bombers and militants then broke into the plant and clashed with the security forces.

A spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command said three of the facility's gas storage tanks were set alight before security forces were able to bring the situation under control.

Amaq news agency, which supports IS, said the group's fighters were behind the attack.

IS extremists control swathes of the country's north and west, including Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

The group, which has declared an Islamic caliphate on the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria, has recently increased its attacks far from the front lines.

Over the past few days, more than 100 people have been killed in a string of bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP