IS blasts near Iraq mall kill 13 people

Two bomb blasts outside a shopping mall in central Baghdad claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 13 people, security and medical officials said yesterday.

The bombings were the latest in a series of deadly attacks at Baghdad shopping centres this year that have been claimed by IS, including one that killed more than 300 people in early July.

The jihadist group issued an online statement on the attack, saying it targeted Shias and was carried out by two Iraqi suicide bombers, one of whom wore an explosive belt and another who drove an explosives-rigged vehicle.

IS and other Sunni extremists consider Shia Muslims to be heretics, and frequently target them in bombings.

The blasts, which hit just before midnight (2100 GMT) Friday, shattered windows at the multi-storey Nakheel Mall on Palestine Street in the city centre, and damaged a fence surrounding it.

Nakheel Mall opened last year and shops were likely to have remained open late ahead of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha which begins tomorrow. The mall also houses one of the city's most popular cinemas.

IS claims most major attacks in Baghdad, including some carried out at shopping centres earlier in the year.

On Tuesday, a car bomb near a hospital killed at least seven people in Baghdad's Karrada district -- an area still reeling from a July 3 suicide bombing that set nearby shopping centres ablaze and left more than 300 people dead.