Deadly explosion rocks Iraq's Anbar, killing at least two and wounding dozens

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A car bomb blast on Friday killed two people and injured dozens more in an Iraqi town near the Syrian border, the Ministry of Health announced.

A vehicle laden with explosives blew up in a busy market early in the day in Anbar Province's town of al-Qaim. A local police source put the number of killed at three and injured at 23, according to Reuters. Four military personnel were among those wounded.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the incident, described by the Iraqi military as a terrorist attack.

Al-Qaim was among the last major strongholds of the Islamic State in Iraq, having control of the area as late as November 2017 before the town was retaken by Iraqi forces.

Despite the passing of more than a year since Baghdad's declaration of a final victory over the terrorist organization, it continues to wage an insurgency in areas it once controlled.

On Tuesday, nearly 230 kilometers eastward in Tikrit, another car bomb explosion resulted in the deaths of three and wounding of ten more.

In late December, 250 kilometers northward in Nineveh Province's town of Talafar, a blast that was later claimed by the Islamic State killed two and wounded 11. This was was the first major attack to rock the city since the group's militants were expelled from the town in late August 2017. 

Editing by John J. Catherine