Bombing site in Baghdad (file)
Bombing site in Baghdad (file)Reuters

A suicide terrorist murdered at least 60 people Sunday and wounded about 70 more by driving a fuel truck full of explosives into a security checkpoint south of Baghdad.

The checkpoint is located on a strategic highway near Hilla, 90 kilometers from the Iraqi capital, reports said. About 70 people were wounded in the blast, police officials said.

Terror group Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on the website of the Amaq news agency, which is sympathetic to ISIS.

"A martyr's operation with a truck bomb hit the Babylon Ruins checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Hilla, killing and wounding dozens," the ISIS statement said.

Al Jazeera reported that the suicide bombing occurred at a checkpoint that is usually manned by Iraqi soldiers and federal police forces. "A long line of cars along that key road were also caught in the blast," read the report.

Hilla is the capital of Babylon province, a predominantly Shi'ite region.

"It's the largest bombing in the province to date," Falah al-Radhi, the head of the provincial security committee, told Reuters news agency.

"The checkpoint, the nearby police station were destroyed as well as some houses and dozens of cars."

Among the dead were 39 civilians. The rest were reportedly members of the security forces.

In a separate attack on Sunday near Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, several members of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Al Khaledeya were killed.

Iraqi soldiers, with close air support from coalition fighter jets, are trying to take over by areas controlled by ISIS around Ramadi.

ISIS been striking security forces and civilians with a string of suicide bombings in recent days. A double bombing at a market in Baghdad's Sadr City killed more than 70 people Sunday.

The following day, a suicide attack at a funeral north of Baghdad killed about 30.

Also on Monday, four ISIS suicide bombers infiltrated an army headquarters west of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi general and five other soldiers.

Major General Ali Ibrahim Daboun said one suicide bomber blew himself up inside Staff Brigadier General Ali Aboud's office, while the other three detonated explosives elsewhere inside the headquarters. Seven soldiers were also wounded in the attack, Daboun said.