Islamic State claims third deadly Baghdad bombing in three days

The Islamic State group claimed a large car bomb blast on Thursday that killed at least 51 people in southern Baghdad.

Police said the bomb, which ripped through a used car market in Hayy al-Shurta, is the third such attack in the Iraqi capital in three days.

Mobile phone footage on social media showed charred bodies and destruction after the explosion at about 4.15pm local time.

A police colonel gave initial casualty figures of 39 killed and 61 wounded but said the emergency services were struggling to cope and warned the death toll would rise.

Hospital officials confirmed the toll.

The explosion was the second this week in southern Baghdad. Four people were killed in a car bomb blast in in Bayaa on Tuesday.

At least 11 people were also killed in a suicide car bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State group on Wednesday in a northern Shia area of the Iraqi capital.

Baghdad was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017 but relatively few explosions had been reported since then until this week.