KARBALA – At least 12 people have been killed and several others wounded ina bus bomb attack in the vicinity of Iraq’s holy city of Karbala.

The deadly incident occurred on Friday night when an explosive deviceplanted on the victims’ bus was detonated, local police said, adding thatthe terror attack was carried out at a northern entrance to the city,setting fire to the vehicle.

They said the wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital. There was noimmediate claim of responsibility for the blast.[image: PressTV-Four killed in separate militant attacks across Iraq]link

“Twelve civilians have been killed and five wounded in an explosion on abus at the main checkpoint for the northern entrance to Karbala”, thecity’s health authorities said.

in the mostly Shia Muslim south of Iraq have been rare in recent years,especially after the territorial defeat of the Daesh Takfiri terroristgroup in Iraq in 2017 and the routing of its al-Qaeda predecessors in themid-2000s.