BAGHDAD: A double suicide attack on a base housing Shiite groups fighting alongside the government north of Baghdad killed at least six people on Thursday, medical sources said.
"The car rammed an army checkpoint protecting access to the base" in Mishahada, a Baghdad hospital official said. The first blast killed at least three people, including a civilian.
Around five minutes later, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up at the nearby entrance of the base, which was left exposed when soldiers rushed to the site of the first explosion.
Another three people were killed in the second blast, all of them members of Shiite groups that call themselves "popular mobilisation" forces.
Another medical source confirmed the death toll and said at least 28 other people were wounded.
Mishahada is about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Baghdad, on the road to several frontlines where Iraqi forces and allied militias are battling jihadists.
Pro-government forces earlier this week expelled the Islamic State jihadist group from its last urban bastion in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.
According to the army, 70 members of pro-government forces and at least twice that number of IS fighters were killed in the operation near the town of Muqdadiyah that resulted in the "liberation" of Diyala.
There was no immediate claim for the double attack in Mishahada but IS has taken responsibility for most such attacks in recent months.
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