About 20 people have lost their lives in an Iraqi holy town in still another gruesome act of violence.
The people were killed in a bomb blast in the holy town of Kadhimiya, located in a northern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, reports said late on Thursday.
Iraqi security and medical officials confirmed the casualties, saying the innocent civilians lost their lives after the explosion hit an overcrowded market there.
Kadhimiya is a predominantly Shia town in the crisis-hit country and is home to the shrines of two Shia Imams.
The attack comes as Iraqi security forces are battling against Takfiri militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in different parts of the country.
Reports earlier in the day said that the Iraqi troops managed to recapture a strategically located university that had been seized by the Takfiris in the northern city of Tikrit.
Iraqi forces also killed a large number of militants in clashes around the city, which is located about 140 kilometers northwest of the capital and is still under control of the ISIL since its seizure on June 11.
In a similar move, Iraqi armed forces recaptured the small town of Mansouriyat al-Jabal northeast of Baghdad, shortly after it fell into the hands of the militants. The town is home to a number of gas fields in the eastern province of Diyala.
Over the past days, heavy clashes have been underway between Iraqi armed forces and the ISIL terrorists, who have threatened to spread their acts of violence to Baghdad and other cities.
However, their advance has been slowed down as Iraqi military forces along with volunteer fighters have begun engaging the terrorists on several fronts, pushing them out of several areas they had earlier overrun.
