26 killed in suicide bomb attack in south of Iraq's Baghdad

Up to 26 people were killed and 90 others wounded on Friday in a suicide bomb attack at a football field in a town south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a local police source said. "The latest reports said that 26 people were killed in the suicide bombing," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The attack occurred in the evening when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest among a crowd of people during a football game at the pitch in the town of Iskandriyah, some 50 km south of Baghdad, the source said. The mayor of the town, Ahmed al-Khafaji, was among the killed and Hassoun Hussein, the local leader of the Shiite militia Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, was among the wounded, the source said. Iskandriyah is part of the once restive area, dubbed Triangle of Death, which is a cluster of towns scattered north of Babil's provincial capital city of Hilla, some 100 km south of Baghdad. Earlier, an UN Assistance Mission for Iraq report estimated 7,515 were killed and 14,855 injured in the armed conflicts in Iraq last year.