BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack that killed at least 12 people on Monday in a Shi'ite district of the Iraqi capital.
In a statement, the Sunni insurgent group said it had targeted Shi'ite militiamen in the Ameen district of eastern Baghdad. A further 42 people were wounded in the explosion, police and medical sources said.
The government is trying to dislodge the insurgents from large swathes of the country's north and west, but advances have been slow, particularly in the western province of Anbar.
The capital has witnessed a wave of kidnappings and attacks on government officials and civilians.
Earlier in the day, gunmen shot and killed a local official along with his son and nephew in the town of Tarmiya, about 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad, police and medics said.
The government has been struggling to rein in Shi'ite militias, seen as critical forces against Islamic State, or control criminal gangs carrying out contract killings, kidnappings and extortions.
(Reporting by Saif Hameed; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Dominic Evans)
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