At least seven people were killed late on September 5 in a car bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group near a hospital in a central district of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.
The suicide bomber targeted a gathering of Shi'ite Muslims near the Abd al-Majid hospital in the Karrada district, according to the militant group's Amaaq news agency.
The police and hospital sources said at least 15 people were also wounded in the blast and they expect the death toll to rise.
The blast was not far from the site of an IS suicide attack in July that killed 324 people in the worst single bomb attack ever to hit the Iraqi capital.
The fight against IS has aggravated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq between the Shi'ite majority and the Sunni minority.
The militants have lost ground in the past year to U.S.-backed government forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias, but such bombings show they can still strike outside the territory they control in northern and western Iraq.
