A suicide car bombing claimed by the ISIL group killed 12 people at a crowded checkpoint north of Baghdad on Monday, security and medical officials said.

The blast at the entrance to the town of Khales also wounded 37, according to Diyala province police spokesman Colonel Ghalib al-Attiyah and health department spokesman Faris al-Azzawi.

Attiyah said the checkpoint was crowded with cars, and that a number of them were burned in the blast.

ISIL issued a statement claiming the attack, saying it was carried out by an Iraqi national.

The blast came a day after a suicide bombing claimed by ISIL killed at least 15 people in Baghdad’s Kadhimiyah neighborhood.

Earlier this month, ISIL carried out a suicide bombing in a crowded shopping area in Baghdad’s Karrada district that killed 292 people — one of the deadliest such attacks to ever hit Iraq.

ISIL overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground and are conducting operations to set the stage for the battle to recapture Mosul, the last ISIL-held city in the country.

The ‘jihadists’ have responded to the battlefield setbacks by striking civilians, and experts have warned there may be more such attacks as the ‘jihadists’ continue to lose ground.

Source: AFP