BAGHDAD, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and eight others injured on Friday in a bomb explosion inside a car in Iraq's holy Shiite city of Karbala, an Interior Ministry official said.
The blast took place in the evening when a bomb detonated inside a minibus carrying passengers near the main security checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Iraq security forces sealed off the scene and launched an investigation into the incident, the source said.
Meanwhile, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operation Command (JOC) said in statement that a bomb inside a minibus carrying civilians detonated near a checkpoint at the entrance of Karbala, leaving the people burned inside.
The JOC statement did not give further details about the casualties, but said that more information will be released later.
Moreover, a medical source in the Karbala Health Department anonymously told local media that at least five bodies had arrived at the morgue in Karbala main hospital and some ten people were sent for treatment from burns sustained from the explosion and the fire of the minibus.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in many cases, was responsible for attacks targeting security forces and crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.
The security situation in Iraq was dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017.
But IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas, carrying out guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians despite military operations from time to time to hunt them down.
