ISIL - responsibility for eastern Iraq blasts claim

A market bombing last month in the Diyala province
also claimed by ISIL killed more than 100 people       

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed responsibility for attacks that killed more than 50 people near the eastern Iraqi city of Baquba.

More than 80 people were injured in Monday's attacks that happened in predominantly Shia areas in Diyala province.

The deadliest attack occurred in the town of Huwaydir. Police said a suicide car blast tore through a marketplace, killing dozens of people.


"A suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped vehicle blew himself up in the middle of the central market area in Huwaydir," a police lieutenant-colonel said, according to the AFP news agency.

Another suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden vehicle past a checkpoint before blowing himself up in Kanaan district, killing at least 10 people and wounding the same number, a police captain said.

ISIL, which controls large swaths of the country's north and west, said in a statement circulated online by supporters that the targets were "rejectionists", as the Sunni group refers to Shia Muslims.

Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Baghdad, noted that the bombings were the second deadliest ones in the province since late July, when at least 100 civilians were killed in attacks also claimed by ISIL.

Residents in Diyala have been calling for greater protection after the attacks last month.

The government in Baghdad vowed to apprehend the culprits and better secure the province, where a number of towns were captured by ISIL last year. Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters since have retaken those areas, but clashes between ISIL fighters and security forces continue.

ISIL currently controls about a third of Iraq and Syria.